It’s been a special week for everyone involved with SC Freiburg, as the club reached the quarter-final stage of a European competition for the first time in its history. Vincenzo Grifo scored his 106th goal for Freiburg against Genk, making him the club’s all-time top scorer. “It was a historic goal for me. I’m taking the ball home and putting it on display,” said the forward.

Head coach Julian Schuster spoke about the feeling of reaching the quarter-finals of the Europa League: “I really want the lads to have moments like these to celebrate.” SC’s next challenge comes in the form of relegation-threatened St. Pauli, where Grifo could celebrate yet another milestone. Should the 32-year-old be called into action, he would make his 300th Bundesliga appearance (across his time at SC Freiburg, Hoffenheim and Borussia Mönchengladbach).

Homecoming of sorts for Treu

Matthias Ginter, who scored the opening goal in Thursday’s Europa League win, expects “a similar game to the one against Union Berlin,” adding, “Everything is at stake for St. Pauli and there’s always a special atmosphere at the Millerntor.” Grifo spoke about “maintaining this confidence we’ve built up,” while Schuster noted the challenges his side could face in Hamburg: “The game against Genk has given us a lot of energy, but it’s tough to face a side fighting for survival just three days later. Our challenge now is to prepare the team for the game against St. Pauli in the short time we have available.”

There are no new squad updates ahead of SC’s trip north. For Philipp Treu, who has been playing regularly at right-back of late, the game against the Kiezkickers marks a return to his former side. His friend and former teammate, St. Pauli’s Hauke Wahl, was full of praise for the 25-year-old ahead of the match: “Philipp was a great asset for us. He is for Freiburg as well. They are lucky to have such a great player and person on their team.”

Not going down without a fight

While Treu and co. are riding high off the back of having secured their Europa League quarter-final spot and also looking forward to a DFB-Pokal semi-final towards the end of April, St. Pauli are digging in their heels this season in an attempt to stay in the division. Wahl is optimistic about the position he and his teammates are in, with the club fully aware of what they have to do as we approach the end of the campaign. “We have a good mix of calmness and intensity going on. We knew from the first game of the season that we’d have a fight on our hands to stay up this year,” said the defender.

St. Pauli are currently six games unbeaten at the Millerntor-Stadion (three draws, three wins), holding Eintracht Frankfurt to a draw at home and even beating VfB Stuttgart in Hamburg.