Sandhausen-Freiburg is a match in the round of 16 of the German Cup and is played on Tuesday at 18:00: predictions and likely line-ups.
Three weeks ago Wolfsburg, last Saturday Borussia Dortmund. It is the second nightmare away game in a row for Freiburg, who dive into the German Cup to try and forget the terrible drubbing they suffered at Signal Iduna Park against Edin Terzic’s men, once again their black beast.
A 5-1 victory that left little to the imagination against the Gialloneri, perhaps facilitated by the almost immediate expulsion of right-back Sildillia for double admonition. This brings the total number of goals conceded in the last two matches away from their own stadium by the team led by Italian-born striker Vincenzo Grifo to eleven. In their first official match of 2023, the team had already been wrecked in the city of Volkswagen: Niko Kovac’s green-and-whites scored six, leaving Christian Streich’s team with no goals to spare. Which has now slipped to sixth place, after having been in the top four for some time. Much better at the Europa Park Stadion, however, where Freiburg have not lost since last August, when – coincidentally – it was the ‘usual’ Borussia Dortmund who inflicted their first (and so far only) home defeat in the Bundesliga.
The club from Breisgau are still fighting on three fronts: in the league, fourth place is still possible, in March they will be engaged in the Europa League round of 16, but the aim is to make their way in the German Cup, a competition in which last year they went all the way to a historic final, later lost to Leipzig. After beating St. Pauli in October, another Zweite Liga team, Sandhausen, awaits them in the round of 16. Alois Schwartz’s black-and-whites are in bad waters: they are currently in the playout zone and come from a humiliating 4-0 loss to Darmstadt.
Kinsombi’s exultation of Sandhausen
The prediction
Streich will make a few changes, prioritising the league game with Stuttgart, but the cup can be a way to turn the page after Dortmund. Sandhausen should not create any major problems, with Grifo and his team-mates likely to go toe-to-toe with a defence that concedes a lot of goals in the cadetteria. The total number of goals could be at least four.
Sandhausen v Freiburg likely line-up
- SANDHAUSEN (4-4-2): Drewes; Framberger, Hohn, Diakhite, Okoroji; Bachmann, Zenga, Mehlem, Kinsombi; Pulkrab, Esswein.
- FRIBURG (4-2-3-1): Atubolu; Sildillia, Gulde, Schmidt, Ezekwem; Keitel, Eggestein; Sallai, Woo-yeong, Grifo; Gregoritsch.
POSSIBLE RESULT: 1-3
