The last Freiburg win in Dortmund goes back a while to 21st October 2001, when Soumaila Coulibaly and Sebastian Kehl scored for SCF, while Mathias Sammer was manager for Dortmund and a certain Fredi Bobic was substituted on after 73 minutes.

Since Christian Streich has been in charge, Freiburg have faced BVB ten times in total, only managing a point in a 2-2 draw in the 2017/18 season. The SCF manager would like to change this statistic on Saturday, as he stressed at the press conference on Thursday: “It really annoys me when I hear a record like this, but we do have the opportunity to improve the statistics. It would be about time, but it’s not like I’m completely desperate now.”

In-form Dortmund

Edin Terzic’s team have recovered from a temporary dip in form, which saw BVB in eighth place after match day ten, and have started 2023 with three wins in the Bundesliga. “There would have been better times to play against them,” said Streich, “but we have expectations of ourselves, even in Dortmund. We are positive that we can stand up to them. Augsburg showed it there at times.”

In addition to the courageous performance of the Augsburg team, who were able to come back from a goal down three times last Sunday at Signal Iduna Park and still lost 4-3 in the end, the advance sale of away tickets should also provide more motivation, with around 5,000 SCF Fans accompanying the team to Dortmund.

Höfler an option again

Despite a convincing performance in the 3-1 home win against FC Augsburg, there could be “three to four changes” for Freiburg, as Streich told the journalists present at the press conference. “We now have a double game week and of course a few injured players. Even though we played well against Augsburg, it’s not like it’s clear for us that the same team will start no matter what.”

One possible choice for the starting eleven is Nicolas Höfler, who returns to the squad after serving his yellow card suspension. “We are not only thinking short term, but also further down the line and the players who have been out of the team recently also have quality. I’m glad that it will be hard to make the decision. “Like in a home game, the SCF team will play with energy and do one thing above all: “Run, run, run.”

Photo: Achim Keller