Preview: Freiburg vs. FC Koln - prediction, team news, lineups

Koln took four points against their forthcoming opponents last season, though, so they will head into the match with plenty of confidence in terms of gaining a positive result.

Match preview

Freiburg continued their excellent season so far with a comfortable 2-0 win away to struggling Schalke 04 last weekend, with Vincenzo Grifo scoring either side of half-time in a dominant display by the visitors.

Having already secured top spot in Group G of the Europa League, head coach Christian Streich made several changes for his side's trip to Azerbaijan to take on Qarabag FK on Thursday, but they retained their unbeaten record in the competition with a creditable 1-1 draw.

As such, their strongest XI is likely to feel fresher than usual having been juggling three competitions throughout the season, which is still a novelty for a club which has rarely been involved in European competition throughout its history.

With his side third in the table ahead of hosting Koln on Sunday, Streich will be dreaming of guiding Freiburg into the Champions League for the first time in their history, having made incredible progress under his tutelage over the past decade.

FC Koln, on the other hand, suffered heartbreak with a 2-2 draw at home against Nice on Thursday dumping them out of the Europa Conference League at the group stage.

Despite showing tremendous character to come from two goals behind at half-time through Denis Huseinbasic's and Ondrej Duda's strikes before the hour mark, Steffen Baumgart's side could not find the winning goal which they required to jump from third to first in Group D.

As such, they can focus solely on the Bundesliga for the rest of the campaign having already been eliminated from the DFB-Pokal by Jahn Regensburg on penalties in the first round.

They will require a surprising victory on Sunday if they are to return to the top half of the table, but with them only trailing fifth-placed Eintracht Frankfurt by three points prior to a ball being kicked this weekend, there will be no need to panic regardless of the outcome in Freiburg.

Freiburg Bundesliga form:

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W

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L

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Freiburg form (all competitions):

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W

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D

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D

FC Koln Bundesliga form:

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D

FC Koln form (all competitions):

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D

Team News

Freiburg are likely to be without Jonathan Schmid, Manuel Gulde, Kimberly Ezekwem and Kevin Schade due to injury on Sunday, but Roland Sallai returned from a serious eye injury to feature from the bench against Qarabag.

Streich made 10 changes in Azerbaijan on Thursday - with only Christian Gunter retaining his place in the starting XI - so it would be no surprise to see the exact same team which won in Gelsenkirchen return to the field at Europa-Park Stadion on Sunday.

Koln, meanwhile, were forced to go strong with their progression to the knockout stages riding on their result against Nice, so Baumgart may be keen to freshen things up with a few changes.

However, injuries to Sebastian Andersson, Florian Dietz, Tim Lemperle, Dimitrios Limnios, Dejan Ljubicic and Mark Uth are limiting the 50-year-old's ability to rotate, but Eric Martel is likely to come into the midfield area in order to beef up that area of the pitch.

Freiburg possible starting lineup:

Flekken; Kubler, Ginter, Lienhart, Gunter; Eggestein, Hofler; Doan, Jeong, Grifo; Gregoritsch

FC Koln possible starting lineup:

Schwabe; Schmitz, Kilian, Hubers, Pedersen; Skhiri, Martel; Maina, Duda, Kainz; Tigges

We say: Freiburg 2-1 FC Koln

Freiburg should be significantly fresher than their opponents having rested almost their entire strongest XI in midweek, and we expect them to remain third in the table at worst by claiming a crucial victory.

This will be Koln's fourth match in 10 days and fatigue is likely to catch up with them sooner rather than later, especially after the disappointment of failing to beat Nice and advance to the knockout stages of the Europa Conference League on Thursday.

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