Freiburg will be looking to continue their remarkable season when they welcome Borussia Monchengladbach to the Europa-Park Stadion in the Bundesliga on Saturday.
The hosts progressed to the final of the DFB-Pokal in midweek to make it three successive wins in their surprise race for the top four, whilst the visitors suffered a disappointing derby defeat to end their brief upturn in results.
Match preview
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Freiburg's best-ever Bundesliga campaign continues to improve week on week at the moment, with last weekend's comfortable 3-0 win over VfL Bochum being followed up by the 3-1 triumph over Hamburger SV in midweek.
The latter victory will see Christian Streich's side compete in their first DFB-Pokal final in their history when they take on RB Leipzig next month.
A blistering start saw the Black Forest club rise to their clinical best on Tuesday evening, with goals from Nils Petersen, Nicolas Hofler and Vincenzo Grifo inside the opening 45 minutes killing off the tie against their 2.Bundesliga opponents.
However, Saturday's hosts must avoid a potential hangover from their midweek jubilation, as there remains plenty at stake in the remaining four games of the Bundesliga season too.
The victory over Bochum last weekend saw Streich's men close the gap on the top four to just one point, thanks to fellow challengers RB Leipzig and Bayer Leverkusen facing off against one another, to increase Freiburg's hopes of a first-ever Champions League qualification even further.
As the experienced boss has done all campaign, he is sure to keep his side grounded in the coming weeks, as they look to pull off a remarkable achievement and upset the odds at the expense of one of the bigger sides in Germany, with their quest continuing against Gladbach at the Europa-Park Stadion on matchday 31.
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Meanwhile, whilst visitors Gladbach wish they were in their hosts' shoes at this stage of the season, as well as usually expecting to be, their focus has turned to preparations for next campaign.
A hugely disappointing season looked to be finishing on a high note after picking up 10 points from a possible 12 in recent weeks, before Die Fohlen were brought crashing back down to earth last time out.
Rhineland rivals FC Koln were the visitors to Borussia-Park last Saturday, and after being humiliated by the Billy Goats earlier in the campaign, a response will have been expected from Gladbach.
However, Adi Hutter's men were on the receiving end of a battering in the opening 45, as they headed into half time at 3-0 down, before Breel Embolo's late goal offered them nothing more than a consolation.
Being on the wrong end of a league double against their rivals has summed up their desperately poor campaign, with last weekend's defeat leaving Gladbach down in 11th place in the table, and a remarkable 10 points off the pace in the hunt for the European spots.
Therefore, their attentions have switched to a summer rebuild ahead of a much-expected improvement next season, although a positive finish to the season is still required with many players, and the manager, fighting for their futures at the club.
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Team News
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Much of Freiburg's success this season has been built on their stability and organisation, with very few injuries and a consistent starting lineup certainly helping their cause.
With only Kevin Schade and Yannik Keitel remaining out injured, Streich is presented with the opportunity to name a potentially unchanged starting 11 once again at the weekend.
Manuel Gulde and Lukas Kubler did miss the midweek cup win due to illness however, with Jonathan Schmid set to keep his place at right-back should the latter miss out once more.
As for the visitors, the injury picked up by the important Matthias Ginter in last weekend's defeat ensured the misery was piled on even further.
The central defender is expected to miss the trip to Freiburg as a result of the ankle problem, which is made worse by the continued doubts over the availability of Marvin Friedrich, who has missed the last few matches due to injury himself.
Laszlo Benes is also sidelined due to a hip problem, whilst Marcus Thuram could well be missing from the front line again as a result of the knock that he picked up against Greuther Furth two games ago.
Freiburg possible starting lineup:
Flekken; Schmid, Lienhart, N Schlotterbeck, Gunter; Eggestein, Hofler; Sallai, Jeong, Grifo; Petersen
Borussia Monchengladbach possible starting lineup:
Sommer; Beyer, Elvedi, Bensebaini; Scally, Neuhaus, Kone, Netz; Hofmann, Plea; Embolo
We say: Freiburg 2-1 Borussia Monchengladbach
With Gladbach left with nothing to play after performing hugely disappointing this season, Freiburg should come out on top here with a raucous atmosphere behind them at the Europa-Park Stadion.
If the hosts can build on their midweek success in the cup rather than suffer from a hangover as a result of it, they should possess too much quality, intensity and desire for their lacklustre visitors.
Top tip
Matthew Tranter
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Freiburg win with a probability of 51.96%. A win for Borussia Monchengladbach had a probability of 26.13% and a draw had a probability of 21.9%.
The most likely scoreline for a Freiburg win was 2-1 with a probability of 9.49%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-0 (7.21%) and 2-0 (7.08%). The likeliest Borussia Monchengladbach win was 1-2 (6.48%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (9.67%). The actual scoreline of 3-3 was predicted with a 1.9% likelihood.
