Visiting a Freiburg side unbeaten in Europe

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FC Red Bull Salzburg

·9 Desember 2025

Visiting a Freiburg side unbeaten in Europe

Points needed in Germany

The UEFA Europa League's league phase is heating up, and our Red Bulls are under pressure if they want to keep their hopes of advancing alive. Facing SC Freiburg away this Thursday, December 11th at 21:00 CET will be anything but easy.

The German Bundesliga side recently suffered a 1-2 defeat at Heidenheim, but they still sit in ninth place in their domestic table. In Europe, Freiburg are in an even better position. Eleven points from their first five (undefeated) matches put them in a strong fourth place!

Video OneFootball

Two names in coach Julian Schuster's team are of particular interest to us. First and foremost is our former striker Junior Adamu, who has been a regular starter for Freiburg in this season's UEFA Europa League and has scored two goals. In defence, Austrian international Philipp Lienhart is a key player. Conversely, the hosts have already faced the likes of Karim Onisiwo, who scored a total of four goals against Freiburg during his time at Mainz.

Find out more about Freiburg in our opposition analysis!

You can follow our first competitive match against SC Freiburg from home on Canal+ in Austria.

Possible SC Freiburg starting XI

Injury news

Not available are Lucas Gourna-Douath (knee), Takumu Kawamura (knee), Maurits Kjaergaard (calf) and John Mellberg (knee).

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Freiburg are a team that have been a key part of the German Bundesliga for years and qualified for the Europa League last year. They currently sit in a strong fourth place there, as do five of our eight opponents currently in the top eight. They rely heavily on their collective strength and are very cohesive as a team. They were already very compact under Christian Streich, and Julian Schuster has continued that. A match against a German Bundesliga team is also always exciting. In Freiburg, we not only want to put on a good performance, but also be more efficient than we have been recently.

Thomas Letsch

In the Europa League, we're in a situation where we don't need to look at the table as we have to concentrate fully on the upcoming match. that's difficult enough, considering we're playing away against the fourth-placed team. We're going into this game with full motivation though and the aim of getting points in Freiburg.

Petar Ratkov

Win great prizes in the My RBS Prediction game!

Our Europa League matches are also part of the My RBS Prediction Game – and taking part is completely free! So, if you haven't already, sign up using the button below and enter your predictions for the upcoming matchday.

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How the UEFA Europa League's league phase works

Since last season, a league format has replaced the group stage in UEFA competitions. Just like in the Champions League, each team in the UEFA Europa League is drawn against eight different opponents, with four home and four away matches.

At the end of the eight rounds, an overall standings of all 36 participating teams is established. The top eight then advance directly to the round of 16. Teams ranked 9th to 24th will face each other in a home-and-away play-off for the remaining spots in the knockout phase.

Other changes compared to previous years: following elimination, 'relegation' to the UEFA Conference League is no longer possible, as was previously the case for the third-placed teams in each group. Furthermore, the league stage also lasts until the end of January.