Preview: Eagles face Freiburg at halfway mark | OneFootball

Eintracht round off the first half of their league campaign against Freiburg at Deutsche Bank Park. The visitors are doing well overall but have struggled on their travels.

Backdrop

It was all smiles in the Eintracht Frankfurt camp following Saturday’s 1-0 win at FC St. Pauli, as Dino Toppmöller’s side began 2025 by claiming three important points and consolidating third place in the Bundesliga standings. “We’re ready for more of the same, preferably with as many games as possible,” Robin Koch said after the victory in Hamburg. The Eagles do not have long to wait for their next match, as they welcome SC Freiburg to Deutsche Bank Park at 20:30 CET on Tuesday 14 January.

New coach, familiar face

After nearly 13 years and 488 games in the dugout, Christian Streich stepped down as the Black Forest club’s head coach last summer. The 59-year-old was replaced by one of his former players in Julian Schuster, who made 242 appearances for Freiburg after arriving in 2008. The 39-year-old’s current captain, Christian Günter, has been with the club since 2007, while Eintracht’s vice-captain Koch played nine games with Schuster during his time in Baden-Württemberg.

Schuster has managed to pick up where Streich left off, yet still managing to implement his own ideas. The former midfielder has averaged 1.69 points per game since taking charge, while his record against Eintracht as a player was four wins, three draws and four losses.

Eyes on the prize “We want to put in another strong performance at home to Freiburg, play attacking football, get the fans on our side and pick up the three points,” said Nathaniel Brown. The visitors head to Frankfurt in sixth place, with 27 points from their 16 matches so far. They also made a winning start to the new year, beating promoted Holstein Kiel 3-2 on home soil.

“We now have two great away games coming up in Frankfurt and Stuttgart, with two great crowds. We just have to stay focused, work hard and keep training,” said Freiburg forward Eren Dinkci after the win over Kiel. His team have struggled away from home, however, winning just two of their eight league games on their travels. They have collected only two points from their five away games since their last victory on 5 October, and also lost 3-1 to Arminia Bielefeld in the DFB Cup.