“We haven’t had long to prepare for this derby,” said head coach Julian Schuster two days before his side are set to face off with Stuttgart at the MHPArena. This lack of preparation time is down to SC’s eighth and final UEFA Europa League league phase match, in which they lost 1-0 to French side Lille OSC. Despite the loss, there was a noticeable sense of happiness after the game: “Of course, it would have been nice to have gone the whole league phase undefeated, but we’ve qualified directly for the round of 16 and will get to play again in Europe in March,” said Schuster.

Stuttgart also have little time to prepare for Sunday’s game, having also played in the UEL on Thursday night. They ended their league phase with a win, but will have to get through the playoff round if they are to join SC in the round of 16. The two sides have enjoyed fairly similar campaigns so far in the Bundesliga, Europa League and the DFB-Pokal, as both teams are doing well in all three competitions.

“An exciting task”

“Stuttgart have really stabilised throughout the season and they’ve found their rhythm,” said Schuster. Looking back at their results so far this term, it’s clear that Stuttgart are one of the best teams in the Bundesliga. Sebastian Hoeneß’s side are unbeaten in their last six games and have recorded a convincing victory over Leverkusen, a win over Frankfurt thanks to a determined performance in the final few minutes and scored three unanswered goals to take all three points against Borussia Mönchengladbach.

“This is our next challenging, yet exciting task against a team with a lot of quality,” added Schuster, who had no injuries to report from the game in Lille: “The lads all got through the game and have recovered well.” The recently sidelined Lucas Höler is back training with the team, however Sunday’s game will come too early for Lukas Kübler and Philipp Lienhart.

Philipp Treu has fond memories of the reverse fixture earlier this season, despite watching the whole game from the bench. He was right in the middle of the celebrations, as Derry Scherhant and Igor Matanovic fired SC to a 3-1 win at the Europa-Park Stadion after going 1-0 down. “We did well in the first half of the season,” said Treu, who was told all about the previous two trips to Stuttgart by his teammates. SC suffered defeats in both games and conceded a combined total of nine goals without scoring one of their own. “We want to show a different side to ourselves in Stuttgart this time and cause them problems,” declared Treu ahead of Sunday’s derby.

Photo: SC Freiburg