Freiburg take on Stuttgart in the Bundesliga on Saturday with the two sides separated by only two points and one place in the table.
The hosts have lost just one of their last nine league games, which was a narrow defeat to league leaders Bayern Munich, with the visitors winning only one of their last six league games.
Match preview
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Freiburg's club record winning run of five matches may have come to an end in their 2-1 defeat to Bayern Munich last week, but Christian Streich's side's 2-2 draw against the in-form Eintracht Frankfurt on Wednesday showed there is plenty remaining in the tank yet.
Streich opted for a more attacking 4-4-2 system, with Lucas Holer coming into the starting XI alongside Ermedin Demirovic in attack. While Frankfurt dominated possession as a partial consequence, this tactical switch gave Freiburg even greater attacking thrust, with Nils Petersen scoring merely minutes after coming on as a substitute for the second successive match.
Roland Sallai had earlier cancelled out Amin Younes's opener for the visitors, so Streich may have been disappointed that his side could not hold on for another victory with less than half an hour remaining after Petersen's impact.
However, given Frankfurt's equaliser came via Keven Schlotterbeck's unfortunate own goal, Freiburg should still head into the game against Stuttgart with plenty of confidence in terms of gaining a positive result.
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Indeed, while Stuttgart have generally been extremely impressive on the road this season, that was certainly not the case during Wednesday's 3-0 defeat to Arminia Bielefeld.
The two opponents are still in their first season back in the Bundesliga after being promoted last season, but given that no side in the league had taken more points away from home than Stuttgart when they travelled to Bielefeld, and Arminia had not won a match by more than a one goal margin all season, it is fair to say that very few people could have seen this scoreline coming.
Pellegrino Matarazzo's side simply did not turn up on the day, though, with the suspensions of Silas Wamangituka and Nicolas Gonzalez clearly a major blow. Arminia were extremely clinical, too, with all three of their shots on target leading to goals.
It is unlikely that Stuttgart will play that badly again at Freiburg, especially with Wamangituka and Gonzalez set to return, but if they do then it could be an even more humiliating result against a side brimming with goals and confidence at present.
Freiburg Bundesliga form: WWWWLD
Freiburg form (all competitions): WLWWLD
Stuttgart Bundesliga form: DLLWDL
Stuttgart form (all competitions): LWLWDL
Team News
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Freiburg will welcome Nicolas Hofler back into the side after the midfielder served a one-game suspension in the draw to Frankfurt, but Baptiste Santamaria, Amir Abrashi, Kwon Chang-hoon, Jonathan Schmid, Gian-Luca Itter and Mark Flekken are all out with injury.
Petersen may be considered for a start up front having scored two goals in two games from the substitutes' bench in the past week, although Streich may return to his favoured 3-4-3 formation.
Stuttgart will be delighted to welcome back Gonzalez and Wamangituka to the side after the embarrassingly heavy defeat to Arminia on Wednesday.
Sasa Kalajdzic and Tanguy Coulibaly are likely to make way, with Maxime Awoudja, Clinton Mola, Lilian Egloff and Hamadi Al Ghaddioui all unavailable due to injury.
Freiburg possible starting lineup:
Muller; Lienhart, Schlotterbeck, Gulde; Kubler, Haberer, Hofler, Gunter; Sallai, Demirovic, Grifo
Stuttgart possible starting lineup:
Kobel; Stenzel, Anton, Kempf; Wamangituka, Mangala, Endo, Castro, Sosa; Klimowicz, Gonzalez
We say: Freiburg 2-2 Stuttgart
With Wamangituka and Gonzalez back in the side, Stuttgart should rediscover the mojo which they have had for the most part on the road this season.
Both sides score and concede plenty of goals, so it should be a hugely entertaining affair, with a draw being the most likely outcome.
