Bundesliga Europa League Check | SC Freiburg | OneFootball

In our next Bundesliga European piece to be released here on Get German Football News, the always-appreciated SC Freiburg receive their day. Some last few day it’s been for Julian Schuster’s Schwarzwaldverein. After a rough start to the season (in which Schuster for some inexplicable reason set his squad up all wrong), the Breisgauer currently fire on all cylinders as they prepare to head south to Bologna for their second 2025/26 Europa League match. It’s been far too long since we’ve checked in with the “Super Sport Club” on a detailed level, meaning this one will prove a real treat.

The author is pleased to report that practically all of the recent hype surrounding this club remains fully justified. The players and fans presently stand united in their belief in the journey ahead. While detractors will point out that Sunday’s 1-1 draw with TSG 1899 Hoffenheim proved about as exciting as slow-mo checkers, Schuster’s tactics have proven themselves worthy of high-speed-chess. Schuster’s team held a stable line against their richer and faster north Baden rivals. Sometimes one simply has to grind it out with a low block. It happens.

Assume that Schuster and company conserved their creative spark for a far more entertaining fixture on Thursday.

Having to do without Johan Manzambi against Hoffenheim didn’t help.

SC Freiburg UEL Squad

All 27 professionals on the SCF squad are technically registered for the competition via the “B-Squad” selection protocols. This extends the to the two players readers will not be surprised to see missing: Congenitally injured German-Ghanian attacker Daniel-Kofi Kyereh and the poor lost soul that is Maximilian Philipp. Neither Kofi-Kyereh nor Philipp have featured in any of the SCF match-day squads this season. Manzambi and young defender Bruno Ogbus were initially on the “B-list”, until the late departures of Michael Gregoritsch and Merlin Röhl allowed for their elevation.

Defenders:

Lienhart, Jung, Kübler, Beste, Ginter, Treu, Günter, Makengo, Rosenfelder, Ogbus, Schopper, Steinmann

Midfielders:

Osterhage, Eggestein, Suzuki, Höfler, Grifo, Manzambi, Tarnutzer

Forwards:

Scherhant, Höler, Dinkçi, Adamu, Irié, Matanović, Amegnaglo

Ogbus – another exciting young Swiss prospect not quite as far along as Manzambi – made three SCF first team appearances last year and registered an assist in the opening round of the Pokal. The 19-year-old has already attracted interest from EPL sides and might well become a more known name in the near future. Young French striker David Amegnaglo has scored 12 goals for SCF II in the Regionalliga Südwest.

Rouven Tarnutzer is an interesting midfield prospect who has earned four starts for the reserves thus far this season. Young defenders David Schopper and Karl Steinmann are regular fixtures for Bernard Weis’ Junioren and also played regularly last year. Record summer signing Philipp Treu – after suffering a separated shoulder in training camp – is back picking up minutes under Schuster for the first team.

SC Freiburg Remaining UEL Schedule

October and November feature’s two very winnable fixtures, even if Thursday’s encounter constitutes quite the test. Schuster’s team get set to benefit from a much lighter Bundesliga and Europa League schedule in the final two months, meaning simply picking up single points through the autumn months might end up being fully sufficient. The travel schedule also counts as a light burden for this “Border Burg”. Freiburg traditionally perform well whenever taking that quick hop across the French border.

Thursday, October 2nd

FC Bologna (A) 18:45

Thursday, October 23rd

FC Utrecht (H) 21:00

Thursday, November 6th

OGC Nice (A) 18:45

Thursday, November 27th

Victoria Plzeň (A) 18:45

Thursday, December 11th

RB Salzburg (H) 21:00

Thursday, January 22nd

Maccabi Tel Aviv (H) 18:45

Thursday, January 29th

Lille OSC (A) 21:00

It all comes together nicely for the Badeners and their traveling cohort of fans as they cruise to the knockouts. One sincerely hopes for a better ending than the one delivered by West Ham United in the 2023/24 UEL Round-of-16. German football lovers received quite the double-whammy when, after that elimination, legendary trainer Christian Streich’s words and body language made it clear that he would be leaving us. Schuster looks poised for success in his initial European campaign. One also sincerely hopes that the affable young trainer won’t follow the “Robin Dutt” career trajectory.

Tactics Check, SC Freiburg

It seems like eons ago that Schuster had this team set up in a totally impractical manner. Schuster’s obvious mistakes seem to stem from no real logic apart from a possible concern that the more logical formation deployed in the Pokal didn’t deliver the requisite fireworks. For whatever it’s worth, the author did agree at the time and liked his personal recommendation better. Oh well. We got this instead. Ideally, we’ve seen the last of it.

Lineup—Freiburg (Matches 1-2)

Schuster might have been tempted to simply chalk off the stunning loss against Augsburg on opening day as his team clearly won the xG battle over Sandro Wagner’s FCA, 2.60 to 1.34. In hindsight, most of us probably could have seen that Wagner’s big 1-3 matchday one victory would prove nothing more than an aberration anyway. The three FCA goals came thick and fast in the final 15 minutes of the opening 45. Plenty of propitious bounces for Augsburg and momentary concentration lapses from Freiburg contributed to the result. SCF also saw an early goal disallowed.

All of that notwithstanding, even the most amateur of tacticians can see what’s wrong with the graphic above. Manzambi at six? Yuito Suzuki at ten? The fact that otherwise reliable actors such as Lucas Höler and Eren Dinkçi opted not to show up early obviously didn’t help. Moreover, Manzambi’s rattling off of some promising late dribbles and Vincenzo Grifo furnishing some of his trademark set-piece artistry likely influenced Schuster’s decision to roll with the exact same XI against Köln the next week.

The 4-2-3-1 largely held its ground against the hosting cathedral city side for the opening half hour, but there were plenty of warning shots from Lukas Kwasniok’s Geißböcke as the half-hour-mark approached. Noah Atubolu bailed his team out on several occasions before Jakub Kaminski gave Köln a well-deserved lead in the 35th. Everything fell apart on that play. Köln striker Marius Bülter was given far too much space on the left. Dinkçi didn’t bother to mark Kaminski in the box at all.

Shortly after the restart, more atrocious marking in the box enabled Bülter to head home to the 2-0 in the 47th. In full meltdown mode, Schuster’s charges allowed Bülter to all-too-easily set up Jan Thielmann’s 3-0 in the 57th. Atubolu prevented much, much worse before German Wunderkind Said El Mala added the 4-0 in the 81st-minute. Having made at least four superhuman saves between the Thielmann and El Mala tallies, Atubolu just ran out of omnipresent limbs.

A late pullback goal from Maximilian Eggestein meant nothing as the “cathedral city massacre” left Freiburg dead last in the Bundesliga heading into the September international break. Absolutely no one in the back-four – a highly experienced set of veterans – looked like top flight players again the newly promoted side. Schuster simply had to pull the plug on some of these players once the league re-convened.

Lineup—Freiburg (Match Three)

Goals in a 2-0 friendly win over FC Luzern over the September break led to Jan-Niklas Beste and Patrick Osterhage earning starts against Stuttgart. Beste displaced his friend and former Heidenheim teammate Dinkçi, who simply started the season in shockingly lousy form. Osterhage’s selection to serve in midfield (obvious, obvious, obvious) led to Manzambi moving up to the ten slot and we saw the beginnings of this (admittedly hyperbolic) “Wonder-twins” midfield project. We’ll see how long that will last.

Captain Christian Günter also had to take a seat in favor of the younger and more agile Jordy Makengo. At least the collective defending from the back-four improved considerably. Apart from that, watching two 4-2-3-1s square off in Breisgau proved quite the hard watch. A memorable moment of magic from VfB strike Ermedin Demirovic added a small dose of sparkle to an absolute stinker. Demirovic’s 20th-minute back-heel gave Stuttgart the 0-1 lead. Freiburg couldn’t muster up a response of any sort.

To their credit, the hosts woke up after the break. Kübler and Manzambi executed some useful incursions into the penalty area. Schuster left his original XI on the pitch until the 63rd, when he brought Derry Scherhant on for Grifo. Igor Matanovic relieved Höler in the 78th. The seeds of the magnificent story of the Stuttgart match’s finish were planted. All Germans found themselves keen to talk about Freiburg come Monday morning. At long last, the Breisgauer flexed muscle added during their highly successful summer transfer window.

Lineup—Freiburg (80th minute)

Matanovic polished off a Lukas Kübler cross for the 1-1 in the 81st. Scherhant benefited from a fine set-up from Manzambi to net the 2-1 in the 86th. Matanovic received the chance to ice off the Schwarzwaldkuchen with a penalty conversion on the 3-1 at 90+2. A perfect “turnaround tale” written by two marquee summer transfers: Scherhant and Matanovic. These are the tales of all tales, the moments of all moments. From this point forward, one knew that Freiburg’s season was off-and-running. They took out a surging team on match-day four.

Next week against Werder Bremen, Schuster compensated for the loss of Manzambi by starting Junior Adamu atop the 4-2-3-1 whilst Höler slid back into the ten slot. Beste, Osterhage, and Makengo retained their starting places. This would be the match that produced Atubolu’s penalty save record. It also produced some of Adamu’s on-brand poor finishing until the notoriously “iffy Austrian” finally got the 2-0 over the line in the 54th. Scherhant featured again off the bench and forced an own-goal off SVW defender Karim Coulibaly on the 3-0 in the 75th.

The center-back pairing of Matthias Ginter and Philipp Lienhart produced by far their strongest match to date. Makengo – save the handball penalty that Atubolu’s save cancelled out – actually delivered the best match the author can recall offhand. In his first meaningful shift since rejoining the Sport Club this summer, Treu looked very good off the bench. Interestingly enough, Schuster had Treu relieve Beste directly on the right wing. Treu and Kübler worked in tandem on both sides off the ball very well.

Freiburg headed home with confidence to face Basel.

Three personnel changes and a might tighter 4-2-3-1.

Lineup—Freiburg (UEL)

A wave of illness sweeping the SCF camp meant that neither Lienhart nor Höler could partake. Up front, that posed no problem as Manzambi’s suspension didn’t apply to the European campaign. Freiburg’s famed “Manuel Gulde replacement” Manuel Gulde took over for Lienhart alongside Ginter. Schuster put the skipper back in by opting for Günter over Makengo on the left. All of this performed serviceable enough, with Atubolu ensuring that the slight advantages the Swiss guests retained early wouldn’t result in Basel taking the lead.

Osterhage – making his Europa League debut – calmly put away a failed clearance of a Manzambi effort in the 31st. Atubolu made a huge save at the end of the opening 45 to ensure Basel couldn’t restore parity. The second half of the famed “twin pairing”, Eggestein, snatched the 2-0 off a Grifo cross in the 56th. Eggestein could have well grabbed a brace a little later were it not for an amazing save from Basel keeper Mirko Salvi. Instead, it would be the guests with a late pullback goal. Freiburg held on for a 2-1 win.

The formation remained fairly tight throughout, with Matanovic, Scherhant, and Makengo working on straight swaps late. Treu once again got his turn as an advanced right winger ahead of Kübler in relief of Beste. It was back to the wider 4-2-3-1 against Hoffenheim. Two personnel changes saw Dinkçi return to the starting blocks in order to take over for the still suspended Manzambi. Makengo also once again got the nod over Günter.

Lineup—Freiburg (Match Five)

With Lienhart still stricken, Jung maintained his place in central defense. Höler recovered only enough to start on the bench. The experiment of Dinkçi working as a ten (something that didn’t actually work out all that well in Heidenheim) at least gave Dinkçi the chance to work alongside Beste again. Excitement was quickly tempered by the fact that this pairing (and indeed not much else) worked out on Sunday. Kübler was in the right place at the right time to stuff home the 1-0 in the third.

That was about all from hosts, who did have to compensate for Kübler’s loss to a concussion shortly before the first half was out. Hoffenheim’s Fisnik Asllani equalized about ten minutes later and the match settled into a midfield stalemate. The collision between Kübler and TSG defender Bernardo (27th) severely undercut the flow of the affair. Schuster’s men managed only a paltry 0.28 xG after the early opening goal. On a tight turnaround from the UEL affair, Freiburg often looked too tired to press.

Hoffenheim proved much more adept at breaking the lines and finished with a full-time xG of 2.54. Atubolu made a few excellent saves near the end. Treu’s turn at right back proved fairly average. Jung dipped heavily as the game progressed as his 33-year-old legs deadened. Grifo, Beste, and Grifo lacked conviction and ideas beyond the middle third. Matanovic and Scherhant were better in relief, though not by much. “UEL Sandwich” matches like this one simply happen at times.

Thursday tip:

Freiburg 2, Bologna 2

Schuster could try a few more things later in matches, such as yanking Grifo if the Germano-Italian simply doesn’t have it on the day. That would enable Beste to switch over to his natural left-hand-side and perhaps revive some of his old muscle memory opposite Dinkçi. Scherhant can always work central behind Matanovic or even aside him as part of a later re-format. The highly touted midfield pairing, not to mention the defense as a whole, did a magnificent job in individual duels against the TSG and can likely be relied upon to keep matters close until the SCF trainer can get fresh legs on.

With Manzambi (eligible) and Höler (recovered) returning to the XI, the author feels absolutely comfortable tipping an upset for the German club. These southern Swabians enter on the march and should be able to run with the four-time UEFA Cup winners. Not really shifting a basic 4-2-3-1 brings with it tremendous advantages. The actors know their roles and all have some experience working them at this point. The Italians will obviously try to hit Treu’s side early and often. This could lead to a goal or two. No matter. Atubolu prevents worse and the attackers find a way to hit back.

GGFN | Peter Weis