It’s been a while since SC last had five full days to prepare for a match – most recently after the November international break ahead of the game at FC Bayern. The extra time on the training ground may come at just the right moment, because Wolfsburg, who struggled to find their rhythm for several weeks in the league, have got themselves back on track.

The Wolves have taken seven points from their last three matches. The coaching change made after matchday 11 has proven the right move from Wolfsburg’s perspective. Interim head coach Daniel Bauer replaced the unsuccessful Paul Simonis, made a number of tactical adjustments and has now named the same starting XI for three games in a row – with results to match. VfL are now just two points behind Freiburg, who have found it difficult to pick up points away from home this season. Aside from draws in Mönchengladbach and Berlin, SC have recorded just one away win so far – on matchday four in Bremen.

Freiburg picked up their 17th point of the campaign with a strong performance in last Sunday’s draw against Borussia Dortmund. Even so, there was frustration after full time at missing out on a win against the third-placed side, who played for more than 30 minutes with ten men. Julian Schuster is well aware that bringing something back from Wolfsburg will be no easy task: “You can sense that their belief is back and that they’ve found a real structure to their side.”

With fixtures coming thick and fast in recent weeks, this week offered Freiburg the chance to take a brief breather before the final game of 2025. “We had an extra training session,” explained the 40-year-old. “It makes a difference whether you can train all week or not. You have to weigh up carefully what you work on. But you could see that the intensity and willingness among the lads is still very high.”

Cyriaque Irié returned to the matchday squad last week for the Europa League game against Salzburg for the first time since his bout of malaria. However, the forward will now be unavailable until January, as he joins up with Burkina Faso for the Africa Cup of Nations. Max Rosenfelder remains sidelined with a muscle strain, while Philipp Lienhart and Niklas Beste will also miss the trip to Wolfsburg. Eren Dinkci, meanwhile, has returned to team training during the week, but a comeback at the weekend appears unlikely. “He’s been out for a while, so this weekend will probably come too soon,” Schuster predicted.

Photo: SC Freiburg