The hosts may also be able to attack fellow top-four contenders Freiburg with a bit of extra vigour after UEFA’s suspension of Russian clubs gave them free passage to the quarter-finals of this season’s Europa League.
RB Leipzig
After stumbling at defending champions Bayern Munich last month, RB Leipzig are afforded another opportunity to secure a four-game Bundesliga winning streak after grabbing a determined 1-0 win at Bochum last time out in league action. The hosts may also be able to attack fellow top-four contenders Freiburg with a bit of extra vigour after UEFA’s suspension of Russian clubs gave them free passage to the quarter-finals of this season’s Europa League. Manager Domenico Tedesco is enjoying the best win rate (69 per cent across all competitions) of any Leipzig manager across the last decade to have coached more than one game, courtesy of a 32 goal return across his 13 competitive matches in charge. With such firepower, it comes as no surprise then that the 1-0 victory at Bochum was Tedesco’s first by a single-goal margin during his current tenure!
Freiburg
On the other end of the scale when it comes to the length of service is Freiburg’s Christian Streich, who is continuing the finest of his 11 seasons in charge of Freiburg as they advance towards their fifth European appearance in the last 30 years. Illustrating their consistent overachievement is a strong Bundesliga record as outsiders, though they’ve worryingly not won a league game away to any club placed 11th or higher at the start of this round. Freiburg’s goalscoring form is consistent, albeit not nearly as explosive as Leipzig’s, capped off by their largest Bundesliga tally of the 2022 calendar year, a 3-0 win versus Hertha Berlin over the weekend. That was the ninth of their last ten competitive matches in which they found the back of the net after they joined Leipzig in recently defeating Bochum, albeit via an extra-time DFB-Pokal triumph.
Christopher Nkunku become the fifth player of this Bundesliga season to score in four consecutive games as he netted Leipzig’s only goal against Bochum, whilst Freiburg’s Kevin Schade has scored in five of his last nine competitive appearances of at least 25 minutes. The last six H2Hs have seen one team lead 1-0 at half-time.