On the road again

First Team
08.04.2021

Bundesliga Matchday 28 sees SC Freiburg travel to face Arminia Bielefeld in what will be their second away game in two weeks. The Friday night fixture will begin at 20:30 CEST.

SC Freiburg’s last trip to Bielefeld for a league game was a good five years ago. SCF beat then newly promoted from the third tier Arminia Bielefeld 4-1 in March 2016 at the Schüco-Arena in their Bundesliga 2 encounter. This was the club’s first competitive win against Arminia since 1997.

SCF got their next win against Arminia earlier this season at the Schwarzwald-Stadion with goals from Vincenzo Grifo and Wooyeong Jeong. The 2-0 victory also completed a record run for the club of five consecutive wins in the top flight. After a disappointing result in Mönchengladbach last weekend, SC Freiburg now find themselves in tenth place, still with 37 points on the board ahead of Friday night’s trip to the Schüco-Arena.

The players and coaches addressed the defeat at Borussia-Park in detail this week. Described by Christian Streich as "one of the most unnecessary and disappointing defeats in recent years." That said, the head coach was far from unhappy with his team’s performance, not just in the first half when Roland Sallai put the team deservedly in front with his seventh goal of the campaign.

The first-half performance was "almost perfect," according to Streich, but the second half was also in the balance. The only difference being that the hosts scored two goals. "So we will be trying to build on that performance in Bielefeld, but trying to get a different result."

Aside from finding the right tactics to win the game, Freiburg’s coaches have a number of personnel issues to resolve off the pitch first. Not just Vincenzo Grifo, who is feeling fine after testing positive for coronavirus but is not expected to return to training until the middle of next week at the earliest, but also Lucas Höler and Ermedin Demirović will be unavailable in Bielefeld after picking up their fifth yellow cards of the season in Mönchengladbach. All three absentees started against Borussia and will now need replacing.  

"Both played really well," said Christian Streich, without revealing who would be taking their place in the starting XI. "We will definitely be able to field a strong team and I hope they will perform as such as well. That’s what we expect anyway." Among the options to start up front: Roland Sallai, Nils Petersen, Wooyeong Jeong, Changhoon Kwon and Guus Til. Nishan Burkat from the U23s, who made his first-team debut last weekend, will be in the squad again.

Arminia Bielefeld drew 1-1 away to Mainz 05 last time out, but remain second bottom of the league, level on points with 1. FC Köln in the relegation playoff spot, and two points behind Mainz in safety. Since Frank Kramer took over from Uwe Neuhaus as head coach, Arminia have picked up five points from five games, including a 2-1 win over Bayer Leverkusen.

Last season’s dominant Bundesliga 2 champions, currently playing their first season back in the top flight, are strong in the air, flexible in their build up play and have quality on the ball, according to Christian Streich. Arminia Bielefeld have "matched each of their last opponents," he said, including during their 1-0 defeat to RB Leipzig two weeks ago.

"It will be a difficult task. They will push us all the way and I hope that my team will be just as compact and robust despite the absentees," said Streich. First and foremost, the team needs to start well in Bielefeld. "We dropped points from a winning position last week which was very disappointing, so I hope we start in the same way and see it through until the end."

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