Freiburg vs Qarabag FK Match Analysis and Prediction

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With this being Freiburg’s first game in a European group stage since the 2013-14 season, when they finished third in Group H of the Europa League, they take on Qarabag FK in the second tier of European football on Thursday.

Christian Streich was in charge for that season and he remains in the Freiburg dugout, with only Diego Simeone at Atletico Madrid in the middle of a longer-serving managerial reign in Europe’s top five leagues.

Last season was arguably Streich’s most successful campaign, as he guided his side to sixth place in the Bundesliga as well as the first ever DFB-Pokal final appearance in the club’s history, with RB Leipzig beating them on penalties.

Playing in Group G alongside Qarabag, Nantest and Olympiacos, Streich will feel confident of taking Freiburg to the knockout stages of a European competition for the first time since the 2001-02 campaign, when they were beaten by Feyenoord in the third round.

Meanwhile, Qarabag have an even longer-serving head coach with Gurban Gurbanov having been in charge of the club since 2008.

He has overseen a dramatic upturn in the club’s fortunes during that period, guiding them to their first Azerbaijan Premier League title in 21 years in 2014. They have won seven of the subsequent eight titles since in a period of domestic dominance.

Qarabag became the first ever Azerbaijan team to qualify for the group stages of the Champions League in 2017-18, before reaching the knockout stages of a European competitions for the first time in last season’s inaugural Europa Conference League.

However, they are yet to prosper in the Europa League, having finished third in the group stage on three separate occasions. Gurbanov will likely have that set out as the minimum expectation for his players to remain in Europe beyond the turn of the year.

Freiburg vs Qarabag FK head to head

These two teams have not previously met on any occasion and this will be their first meeting in the Europa League group stages.

Freiburg latest home form

Freiburg have recently been on a relatively good run of form at home, having lost just one of their five most recent matches. They managed to defeat Bochum 1-0 in their last home game in the league. In their last five matches, they have scored six goals and conceded three.

Freiburg 0-0 Elversberg 02/07/22

Freiburg 3-0 Rayo Vallecano 16/07/22

Freiburg 1-0 Rennes 16/07/22

Freiburg 1-3 Borussia Dortmund 12/08/22

Freiburg 1-0 Bochum 26/08/22

Freiburg latest away form

Freburg have recently been on a good run of form on the road, having won each of their six most recent matches. They managed to defeat Bayer Leverkusen 3-2 in their last away game in the league. In their last five matches, they have scored 11 goals and conceded three.

Bahalinger SC 0-1 Freiburg 20/07/22

Kalserslautern 1-2(E) Freiburg 31/07/22

Augsburg 0-4 Freiburg 06/08/22

Stuttgart 0-1 Freiburg 20/08/22

Bayer Leverkusen 2-3 Freiburg 03/09/22

Qarabag FK latest away form

Qarabag FK have recently been on a good run of form at home, and have been unbeaten in their five most recent matches. They managed to defeat Shamakhi 4-0 in their last home game in the league. In their last five matches, they have scored 11 goals and conceded four.

Qarabag 3-2 Zurich 19/07/22

Qarabag 1-1 Ferencvaros 03/08/22

Qarabag 3-1 Sabail 06/08/22

Qarabag 0-0 Viktoria Plzen 17/08/22

Qarabag 4-0 Shamakhi 27/08/22

Qarabag FK latest away form

Qarabag FK have recently been on a relatively good run of form on the road, having lost just one of their five most recent matches. They defeated Kapaz 1-0 in their last away game in the league. In their last five matches, they have scored nine goals and conceded five.

Zurich 2-2 Qarabag 27/07/22

Ferencvaros 1-3 Qarabag 09/08/22

Sumqayit 0-2 Qarabag 13/08/22

Viktoria Plzen 2-1 Qarabag 23/08/22

Kapaz 0-2 Qarabag 01/09/22

Freiburg news

Roland Sallai was withdrawn during Saturday’s win away to Leverkusen after suffering an eye injury which could keep him sidelined for a few weeks, with Jeong Woo-yeong replacing him.

There could be starts for Maximilian Eggestein, Ritsu Doan, Nils Petersen and Keven Schlotterbeck, who all came off the bench at the weekend.

Qarabag FK news

Qarabag will make the trip without defender Kevin Medina, who has a leg injury which is likely to keep him out until later in the month.

Having had a week since their last game, Gurbanov could opt to name the starting XI who defeated Kapaz PFK 1-0 away from home last time out.

Prediction and Odds

Should head coach Streich decide to rotate his side, Freiburg are likely to find this contest tougher than many could have expected.

Qarabag have provided stubborn resistance to plenty of teams in Europe over the past decade, and we believe the sides will settle for a share of the spoils.

Odds: 1 2.20 X 2.04 2 2.28