SC Freiburg VS West Ham United Europa League Match Preview: Team News, Prediction And Where To Watch

West Ham United set to face SC Freiburg in the Europa League tomorrow in Round of 16 first leg.

Stats

This is not the first time this season that these teams face off in this competition, as they were both placed into Group A. West Ham topped the group with 15 points, beating Freiburg twice leaving them runners up in the group with 12 points. SC Freiburg currently sit at 9th in the Bundesliga table coming off the back of a draw with German giants Bayern Munich, where as their opponents tomorrow evening see themselves in the Premier League pushing for a European spot in 7th.

In the Europa League this season, no team has scored more goals than Freiburg, 20. West Ham have managed half of that in 6 games, which is 2 less than the German side have played. Defensively the London side only conceded 4 goals in the group stage, Freiburg have conceded 9 including their knockout round playoff games.

When looking into the player statistics this season in the Europa League, no player has played more minutes this season that Freiburg goalkeeper Noah Atabolu. Looking at goalscoring numbers Freiburg have 3 players on 4 goals this campaign; Grifo, Sallai and Gregoritsch.

West Hams highest goalscorer’s in the competition this season are Mohamed Kudus and Lucas Paquetá, both with 3 goals. In all competitions this season West Ham have the highest goalscorer with ‘on fire’ Jarrod Bowen netting 17 times this season for the Iron’s, while Grifo stands top of Freiburg’s evenly distributed goal chart with 11 goals.

Team News

Regarding injuries coming into this game West Ham have only one, that being former Burnley man Maxwell Cornet. SC Freiburg have a few more injuries with 5, however none seeming to be out for a lengthy period of time. Kyereh, Kübler and Rosenfelder are set to return in late March, unlike Schmidt is projected to return in mid march. Fortunately for Freiburg, we could see Lienhart return in this fixture after a 2 month injury to his groin injury.

SC Freiburg Predicted XI:

Formation: 4-4-2

GK- Atubolu, RB- Sildillia, RCB- Ginter, LCB- Gulde, LB- Günter, RM- Doan, RCM- Eggestein, LCM- Höfler, LM- Grifo, LST- Sallai, RST- Höler

This is the same starting eleven that Freiburg fielded against the Bundesliga champions last Friday.

West Ham Predicted XI:

GK- Fabianski, RB- Coufal, RCB- Zouma, LCB- Aguerd, RB- Coufal, RCM- Soucek, LCM- Álvarez, CAM- Ward-Prowse, RM- Kudus, LM- Paquetá, ST- Bowen

This line up excludes Mavropanos who partnered Kurt Zouma at centre back this weekend gone.

Where To Watch

SC Freiburg vs West Ham kicks off at 8pm on Thursday 7th March, the match will be televised on TNT Sport 2 and Discovery+.