bundesliga

Are Freiburg on course to finish in the top four and qualify for the UEFA Champions League for the first time?

10.03.2025

Freiburg are fifth in the Bundesliga table with nine games of the 2024/25 season remaining. bundesliga.com explains why they can still secure UEFA Champions League football for the first time...

Following the departure of club legend Christian Streich in the summer, improving on his achievements in the dugout may have seemed like a pipe dream to many. Of course, Streich kept the Freiburg ship heading in the right direction for several years, but Julian Schuster - himself a former Frieburg player - has taken this team to the next level, respecting his former boss' and predecessor's ideas while also adding some tweaks to make the team more effective.

With 12 wins so far this season, Freiburg have 41 points already, which is just one shy of the tally they registered in the whole of the 2023/24 campaign. Their current six-game unbeaten run has put them in a great position to be able to qualify for the Champions League.

They have drawn their last two top-flight games, but those were against in-form Augsburg and the ever-tricky-to-manoeuvre RB Leipzig.

Freiburg's Julian Schuster has done a superb job in his first season as a Bundesliga head coach. - IMAGO/Eibner-Pressefoto/Memmler

They failed to score in both, which makes the 5-0 win over Werder Bremen - their biggest Bundesliga triumph since defeating Borussia Mönchengladbach 6-0 in December 2021 - an anomaly.

That result showcased just how clinical they can be going forward, but they have only rarely been so. They have scored 34 goals this season, three fewer than second-from-bottom Holstein Kiel, and currently have a negative goal difference (-2). No team has ever finished in the top four having conceded more goals than they have scored, but Freiburg could buck the trend.

Watch: Freiburg 5-0 Werder Bremen - highlights

That's because they simply do not concede goals. They have kept six successive clean sheets - a club record and a feat that only six Bundesliga clubs have ever matched.

Goalkeeper Noah Atubolu has not been beaten in 576 minutes, last conceding in the defeat to Bayern Munich in late January. His penalty save from André Silva in their recent win over Bremen means he has saved the last four spot-kicks he has faced, equalling the shared record of Hans-Jörg Butt, Bernd Leno, Frank Rost and Thomas Zander for successive penalty saves.

Watch: Atubolu's penalty heroics

Not only does their defence help keep the ball out, they’re also surprisingly adept at putting it in the net, too. With 11 goals scored by defenders, Freiburg's backline have contributed at both ends of the pitch with Kilian Sildillia’s superb overhead kick to open the scoring against Bremen the perfect advert for their multi-talented backline.

It shouldn’t have come as a surprise that Freiburg converted from a corner, given they have found the net seven times from that particular set-piece.

Their corner conversion rate might have something to do with the fact that they have the evergreen Vincenzo Grifo in their ranks. The Bundesliga stalwart is responsible for taking five of those seven corners that have resulted in goals, and Grifo’s two goals against Bremen, a delicious free-kick and a composed first-time finish, also proved just how good he is at scoring himself.

Watch: The best of Ritsu Dōan

With eight goals and seven assists to his name this term, Grifo continues to lead Freiburg’s attack. However, Ritsu Dōan has also contributed heavily and has taken some of the goal-scoring burden off the Italian. The Japan international also bagged a brace against Werder, taking his tally to eight Bundesliga goals for the campaign – a personal record – while his four assists should not go unnoticed. He has also struck the all-important opening goal in games four times, more than any of his teammates.

Freiburg have have also turned the Europa-Park-Stadion into a fortress, with only Bayern Munich (34) and Bayer Leverkusen (27) picking up more points on home turf than Schuster’s men (26).

Kiliann Sildillia has helped Freiburg at both ends of the pitch this season. - IMAGO/RHR-FOTO

The team, though, do not appear to be getting ahead of themselves, as Christian Günter explained after the defeat of Bremen. “Talking about the Champions League on Matchday 23 suggests we have done well,” said the captain. "However, four weeks ago, we were meant to be in a mega-crisis here after losses against the supposedly big teams. We know how to assess all of this correctly."

With nine games to go, and a trip to Mainz on Matchday 26 that could end with Freiburg pulling level on points with their third-placed opponents, Freiburg have their destiny in their own hands. After a couple of near misses in recent years – they have twice finished within three points of the top four since 2020 – this may finally be the time they get over the line.