RB Leipzig will target their second victory over Freiburg inside a week when the two teams lock horns at the Europa-Park Stadion in the Bundesliga this Saturday.
A genuine Champions League qualification encounter kicks off the Bundesliga’s Saturday fixtures, as just four days after dismantling Freiburg in the DFB Pokal semi-final, Leipzig return to Europa Park Stadion, planning to repeat the annihilation and overtake the hosts into fourth in the table.
In what had been billed as a possibly closely-contested cup clash on Tuesday, RB Leipzig put Freiburg to the sword and fired five goals past Freiburg, and while a similarly lopsided contest seems unlikely, entertainment and attacking football could still be on the cards here.
The hosts are itching to restore some pride and are responding to that heavy midweek defeat. As it stands, Christian Streich’s men are higher than Saturday’s opponents in the Bundesliga table, level on 56 points with third-placed Union Berlin, with a three-game winning run seeing them supplant the Red Bulls into fourth place. But they are only two points clear of a Leipzig side that has been rediscovering their mojo lately.
On the other hand, Leizpig have improved drastically under Marco Rose and come into this on the back of three wins in their last four matches. Their prospects of winning the title are slim, but they are the favourites to win the DFB Pokal, where they will face Frankfurt in the final.
One domestic cup and a top-four finish in the Bundesliga? That wouldn’t be too bad for a team that had a rough start to the season under previous management.
Leipzig tend to hold the upper hand in clashes against Freiburg this season, having also won the reverse league fixture 3-1 in November in addition to their midweek triumph. The Hard Tackle looks at how both sides could line up on the night and what tactics they might employ.
Team News & Tactics
SC Freiburg
Auch nach dem bitteren Abend gestern: weiter geht’s! 💪 pic.twitter.com/5GlGXmI55r
— SC Freiburg (@scfreiburg) May 3, 2023
Maximilian Eggestein and Roland Sallai are both available after suspension. Daniel-Kofi Kyereh has not played for Freiburg since February after suffering an ACL injury, and the attacking midfielder is not back from his layoff. Meanwhile, centre-back Manuel Gulde remains sidelined with a hamstring injury.
Christian Streich has overperformed expectations for Freiburg in recent times and could revert to his preferred 4-2-2-2 system after deploying a back-three formation that backfired in midweek.
Dutch goalkeeper Mark Flekken has kept a joint league-best 12 clean sheets for fourth-placed Freiburg and will have his place in between the sticks firmly settled here. At the back, Matthias Ginter will marshall the central defence alongside Philipp Lienhart, while Kiliann Sildillia and Christian Gunter will keep their respective full-back positions.
Eggestein and Nicolas Hofler will keep their central midfield berths, with Ritsu Doan playing the advanced role or the No. 10 position. He will have Vincenzo Grifo, who has scored a team-leading 13 Bundesliga goals this season, rotating between winger and wide forward roles during the game.
The front duo of Michael Gregoritsch and Lucas Holer will look to stretch the Leipzig defence and convert scoring chances, especially with the former enjoying a fine debut season, having netted 15 goals in all competitions for the Baden-Württemberg club, driving their charge for a top-four finish and, thus, a ticket to the UEFA Champions League.
Probable Lineup (4-2-2-2): Flekken; Sildillia, Ginter, Lienhart, Gunter; Hofler, Eggestein; Doan, Grifo; Gregoritsch, Holer
RB Leipzig
Midfielders Dominik Szoboszlai and Amadou Haidara are both eligible to play here after returning from their respective suspensions, while the in-demand Josko Gvardiol has a two-game ban after picking up a red card in the midweek game, which only applies to DFB-Pokal.
Xaver Schlager is on his way back from an ankle injury. Shot-stopper Péter Gulácsi continues his recovery from an ACL injury, while Kevin Kampl missed the midweek cup game with a muscular issue. With Gulacsi still injured, Janis Blaswich is expected to continue in goal for Leipzig on Tuesday, as boss Marco Rose looks set to start with the 3-4-1-2 formation.
ℹ️ Joško #Gvardiol has been given a two-game suspension that applies to DFB-Pokal games after his red card in #SCFRBL. pic.twitter.com/PpZRsDzPrq
— RB Leipzig English (@RBLeipzig_EN) May 4, 2023
Lukas Klostermann, Willi Orban, and Josko Gvardiol will form the back three for the Bundesliga giants. Mohamed Simakan and David Raum will start as the wingbacks as they look to attack from the flanks, boosted by the latter’s exceptional crossing attributes.
Amadou Haidara will pair up with Konrad Laimer in the engine room. Szoboszlai will serve as the attacking midfielder, using his intelligence, spatial awareness, link play, and final ball to carve premium-quality chances for the forwards in Timo Werner and Chritopher Nkunku. The Frenchman has 18 goals in 30 games in all competitions this season, including two in his last two outings, as he looks to continue his scoring streak here.
Despite shining brightly in the midweek game against Freiburg, Dani Olmo will likely have to contend with an impact substitute role alongside Andre Silva, Emil Forsberg, and Youssef Poulsen. The bench in itself shows the high-quality attacking assets in Marco Rose’s squad.
Probable Lineup (3-4-1-2): Blaswich; Klostermann, Orban, Gvardiol; Simakan, Haidara, Laimer, Raum; Szoboszlai; Werner, Nkunku
Key Stats
- The hosts have won only one of their last five home games in all competitions.
- Freiburg have won their last three Bundesliga matches.
- RB Leipzig are unbeaten in their last eight matches against Freiburg in all competitions.
- Both teams have scored in each of the last five meetings between the two sides.
- Timo Werner has failed to score in his last three appearances, but he has an excellent scoring track record against Freiburg, having found the net 10 times in 12 previous top-flight games against them.
Player to Watch
Dominik Szoboszlai
While Dani Olmo grabbed all the headlines by scoring one and providing three assists in the DFB Pokal semi-final against Freiburg, Szoboszlai was simply superb yet again and bagged a well-taken brace to take his season’s contribution tally to an impressive seven goals and 13 assists in 41 appearances across all competitions this season.
Needless to say, he’s attracting admiring glances from all across Europe, with Champions League-elect and cash-rich Premier League side Newcastle United recently sending scouts to watch him ahead of a potential summer swoop. Contracted until the summer of 2026, Leipzig are in a strong negotiating position and are set to make big bucks from their prized asset whenever they decide to offload him.
The box-to-box midfielder will be key in this matchup, as he looks to help his team win the midfield battle by creating overloads and exploiting open spaces wherever possible. He’s good on the ball, especially in set-piece situations, and he can also make late dashes into the box. He’s an absolute defensive workhorse on top of it.
Prediction
SC Freiburg 1-3 RB Leipzig
These are two strong sides, and this is a massive game in the battle for the top four. Freiburg will be looking to avenge a 5-1 DFB Pokal thrashing by Leipzig in midweek, but the visitors should fancy their chances of getting another favourable result here.
RB Leipzig have plenty of attacking weapons in their ranks, and all of them are starting to step up to the plate at the right juncture of the season, which gives the visitors an edge coming into this game. Thus, the Hard Tackle backs Marco Rose’s side to boost their Champions League qualification quest by claiming all three points in a goal-laden affair.
