The Bundesliga’s longest-serving coach Christian Streich hopes for a resurgent performance from Freiburg following their 3-1 defeat at Leipzig in the previous round.
Freiburg
Bundesliga action for 2022 ends with a clash between the two surprise packages of the season so far, Freiburg and Union Berlin. The Bundesliga’s longest-serving coach Christian Streich hopes for a resurgent performance from Freiburg following their 3-1 defeat at Leipzig in the previous round. Still, he didn’t mince his words when calling the refereeing performance in that game “an absolute joke”. Such fury perhaps alludes to a shift in attitude from the Freiburg boss, who had previously insisted that avoiding relegation was the aim for this season. Yet, they’ll equal last season’s survival tally with just two more wins. Imperious home form has been key to Freiburg’s success so far, as they haven’t tasted defeat since the first home game of the season whilst keeping five shutouts on that same run.
Union Berlin
Sitting level on points with Freiburg ahead of the round, Union Berlin can ensure that they enter the break in second place if they can emulate their winning performances in two of their three Bundesliga visits here. Urs Fischer’s men may arrive here as something of a wounded beast, though, after failing to win back-to-back league games for the first time this season and conceding seven times in the process. Fischer praised his team for showing the “appropriate reaction” to a 5-0 loss at Leverkusen with their 2-2 draw against Augsburg. With such a hectic schedule between Europe and domestic competition, the break probably comes at an opportune time for the Iron Ones. Hoping to avoid more dropped points ahead of the new year, Union must improve on their current run of three defeats across their last four away league games.
Freiburg’s tough-tackling defender Lukas Kubler has shown that he’s effective at both ends of the pitch after scoring four goals across his last eight appearances. Trying to get the better of him will be Sheraldo Becker, Union Berlin’s top league scorer, that broke his nine-game scoring drought with the opener against Augsburg last time out. Freiburg have kept a Bundesliga-high eight clean sheets this season.