When Fürth visited the Europa-Park Stadion at the end of October, SC took a 3-1 win to see their unbeaten run extend to ten games – a Bundesliga record. Ahead of the two sides’ meeting this weekend, Christian Streich’s side are on another unbeaten run. Last weekend’s 3-2 comeback win against VfL Wolfsburg meant Freiburg are currently five games unbeaten.

This weekend’s opponents took a heavy 6-1 defeat at home to RB Leipzig in their last game. It was a result that, Christian Streich said, shouldn’t be looked at too much. “The game against Leipzig is one you have to ignore, because their team is in a great shape and can bring in some fantastic players who are also happy and healthy. They’ll be speaking about several things this week, and in terms of morale, aggression and attitude, they definitely won’t be lacking on Saturday,” assured Streich.

The 56-year-old had high praise for Fürth, who beat off strong competition in last season’s 2. Bundesliga campaign to sensationally secure promotion. “They’ve put in some great performances, have a good record at home and deservedly had the lead against Bayern at half time. They have five or six moments in every game where they do some great things with the football,” Freiburg’s head coach said, also commenting on the Fürth mentality, as they look far away from the side which seemed to already be resigned to relegation at Christmas: “Not every team would have managed that after their first half of the season.”

From an SC point of view, keeping concentration levels high will be absolutely crucial in making sure the team do not suffer an upset by the underdogs. The speed at which mistakes can get punished in the Bundesliga was clear to see after the restart in the last game at home to Wolfsburg. “They did well and used the space on the pitch well in the second half, which we didn’t close down enough,” explained Streich, going on: “We’ve discussed it and now we need to make sure that we do better off the ball than we did in the in the second half. We’re never happy when we’re 2-0 up and concede two goals.”

Despite the large gap between Fürth and SCF in the table, Streich expects the match to be pretty even: “Work, work, work – that’s our motto,” said the Bundesliga’s longest-serving coach ahead of the game. “We’ll need to put in a top performance off the ball and be running well to make the game ours and take the three points. Those messages have to be in the lads’ heads – we want to do the most we can and not let anything slip out of our grasp.”

As in the last game, Kevin Schade and Yannik Keitel will be missing for the trip to Sportpark Ronhof. Of the players who tested positive for Covid-19, Maxi Eggestein and Hugo Siquet have returned to training. Whether they will be able to play on Saturday is a doubt, as is with Lukas Kübler. The game will sadly come too soon for Philipp Leinhart and Wooyeong Jeyong, meaning some players from the U23 side may be named in the squad for Saturday. “We’ve got some very difficult decisions to make before we depart,” said Streich.

Photo: Achim Keller