Two sides at opposite ends of the 2024-25 Bundesliga standings will face off at at Europa-Park Stadion on Saturday afternoon when Freiburg play host to St Pauli.
The hosts are currently in third place with nine points after the first four games of the season, while the visitors have just one point over the same period and are second bottom.
Match preview
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There is plenty to be optimistic about this season for Freiburg fans, as they have seen their side make a very impressive start to the new season after a forgettable campaign in 2023-24 when their side finished 10th.
Die Breisgau-Brasilianer picked up their third win in four league games this season last weekend, beating Heidenheim fairly convincingly 3-1, with Ritsu Doan opening the scoring in the second half before Vincenzo Grifo bagged a quickfire brace in just six minutes thereafter.
With that result, Freiburg's nine-points in four games is level with their best-ever tally at this stage of the season, and also marked the first time the side have recorded back-to-back home wins in 2024.
Additionally, the last time the hosts started a top-flight season with two home wins on the spin was back in the 2016-17 campaign, and they went on to win each of their first four in a row on that occasion.
Fair to say, it has been a very impressive start to life in Freiburg for Julian Schuster, whose only defeat to date was against Bayern Munich in gameweek two, and he will be confident in extending his record, given that his side have won each of their last three matches in all competitions against their upcoming opponents.
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Meanwhile, after earning promotion back to the top flight last season after a 13-year hiatus, St Pauli have struggled to come to terms with the step up in class of opponents four games into the season.
Kiezkicker suffered a 2-0 defeat to Heidenheim on opening day, and followed that up with a 1-0 loss to Union Berlin and a 3-1 beating at the hands of Augsburg on the road before breaking their duck with a 0-0 draw at home to RB Leipzig last weekend.
With only one goal scored this season, St Pauli are comfortably the lowest-scoring team in the division, with even basement club Holstein Kiel having scored five times already over the first four matchdays.
Indeed, Alexander Blessin will undoubtedly be desperate to get his first win as head coach of Kiezkicker, but his side are now winless in their last 16 Bundesliga matches stretching back to their last top-flight campaign in 2010-11.
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Team News
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Schuster's record over the early stages of the season looks all the more impressive when considering he has a fairly extensive casualty list at present, with as many as seven players likely to sit out this weekend.
Among the longer-term absentees are defenders Kiliann Sildillia (muscle) and Manuel Gulde (back), while in midfield the hosts are set to be without Daniel-Kofi Kyereh (knee) and Merlin Rohl for at least another month.
Forwards Michael Gregoritsch and Maximilian Philipp are sidelined at present with a hamstring and back injury respectively, while Max Rosenfelder is flagged as a major doubt.
St Pauli are also expected to be missing several players this weekend due to injury, including the likes of Maurides, Simon Zoller and goalkeeping duo Sascha Burchert and Soren Ahlers.
In addition, Morgan Guilavogui and Robert Wagner have not featured this season due to illness and their participation this weekend remains questionable.
Freiburg possible starting lineup:
Atubolu; Kubler, Ginter, Lienhart, Gunter; Eggestein, Osterhage, Grifo, Dinkci, Doan; Adamu
St Pauli possible starting lineup:
Vasilj; Wahl, Smith, Mets; Saliakas, Irvine, Boukhalfa, Treu; Afolayan, Eggestein, Saad
We say: Freiburg 2-0 St Pauli
Freiburg have been one of the standout performers over the first four games of the season, and they will see this as a match they should be coming away from with all three points, given their opponents record to this point.
While St Pauli managed to pick up an against-the-odds point against Leipzig last time out, we feel they will struggle to get anything from this one.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Devesh Jaganath
