St. Pauli vs. Freiburg preview: Visitors targeting third successive win | OneFootball

St. Pauli

St. Pauli currently occupy 14th spot after winning six, drawing three and losing 12 of their 21 league matches. They may be sitting just two places above the bottom three, but they boast a sizeable seven-point gap to the relegation playoff spot with 13 matches left to play in the Bundesliga season.

Alexander Blessin’s side recently put together a three-game unbeaten run, claiming back-to-back wins over Heidenheim and Union Berlin, before playing out a 1-1 draw with Augsburg. However, they were unbeaten to extend their undefeated streak in last Sunday’s clash against RB Leipzig, falling to a 2-0 defeat at the Red Bull Arena following goals from Benjamin Šeško and Xavi Simons.

They will hope to get back on track in their first competitive home meeting with Freiburg since October 2015. The hosts have the chance to complete a Bundesliga double over their opponents after running out 3-0 winners in September’s reverse fixture.

Team News

St. Pauli are expected to be without Connor Metcalfe, Manolis Saliakas, Robert Wagner. Morgan Guilavogui, Simon Zoller, Sascha Burchert and Karol Mets.

Freiburg

Freiburg head into the weekend in sixth position after taking maximum points from their last two matches. They ended a seven-game winless away league run with a narrow 1-0 victory over basement side Bochum. The Breisgau-Brasilianer recorded another 1-0 win in last Saturday’s home clash against Heidenheim, with Vincenzo Grifo scoring the decisive goal to clinch a fourth win in five home league matches.

They will now head on their travels with aspirations of recording back-to-back away league wins for the second time this season. Julian Schuster's side will be targeting a strong attacking display, having failed to score more than one goal in any of their previous nine Bundesliga road trips. In fact, they are the league’s second-lowest scorers in away matches, having netted just nine goals in their 11 top-flight away games this season. They will also be aware that their hosts will enter the matchday with the joint second-best defensive record in the division.

Team News

Freiburg are unable to call upon Daniel-Kofi Kyereh, Bruno Ogbus and Lukas Kübler.