Freiburg and West Ham faceoff in the Europa League after opening day wins. The Bundesliga and Premier League outfits both overcame adversity to edge out Olympiacos and Backa Topola in their opening fixtures in Group A.
Preview (Freiburg vs. West Ham United)
This season’s Premier League beginnings by various teams have received a lot of attention. It is impossible to fault West Ham, either domestically or internationally. David Moyes’ team has won the remaining six games since August 20 in all competitions. Their only losses came to Manchester City and Liverpool. That has happened when West Ham is still in a transitional stage. It was evident by their vulnerability when they trailed on matchday one to Backa Topola. West Ham fell behind early, but they came back to win 3-1 at the London Stadium. Mohammed Kudus scored his first two goals since coming from Ajax.
Prior to traveling to Germany this week, West Ham has since defeated Lincoln City and Sheffield United while maintaining a perfect record. Freiburg has not regularly resembled the team that came agonizingly close to qualifying for the Champions League last season since the beginning of 2023–24. Following the international break, Stuttgart and Borussia Dortmund both suffered nine goals surrendered. Christian Streich has since seen his club bounce back in the next three games.
After holding off Olympiacos’ comeback to win 3-2 in Greece, Freiburg went on to draw 0-0 at Eintracht Frankfurt’s stadium. With a weekend 2-0 victory over Augsburg and a second consecutive clean sheet, the team moved up to eighth place and remained just six points behind Bayer Leverkusen in first place.
Team News
Yannik Keitel had to be removed from the Augsburg game after only 20 minutes. Freiburg will be obliged to make one change from the weekend lineup. Given the caliber of the opposition, there shouldn’t be many more changes from the starting lineup. Merlin Rohl will play in midfield. In a back three, the defender Kenneth Schmidt is a viable option. The attacking options Maximilian Philipp and Junior Adamu are also viable.
West Ham will start Lukasz Fabianski, their backup goalkeeper, but Moyes might decide against making as many substitutions as they did for their season’s opening European match. However, changes are still anticipated because Thilo Kehrer, Konstantinos Mavropanos, Kudus, and Said Benrahma are all vying for a role. The suspension that prevented Edson Alvarez from competing in the match against Backa Topola has now been served.
Freiburg 2 – 2 West Ham
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