Freiburg on brink of history | OneFootball

Freiburg on the brink of history as UEFA Champions League beckons

The Black Forest is alive with excitement as Freiburg edge ever closer to history, with the UEFA Champions League beckoning for the boys from Breisgau. bundesliga.com charts how the club have plotted a course to incredible new terrain in Julian Schuster's sensational first season...

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Sitting in fourth place with just two games remaining, Schuster's men are going into arguably their most important encounter of the season: a Matchday 33 meeting away to Holstein Kiel.

Win that, while hoping that Bayer Leverkusen down Borussia Dortmund and RB Leipzig fail to beat Werder Bremen, and Freiburg dreams will have been realised.

The ifs and buts are many, but the bottom line is that Freiburg have club history in their own hands, an outcome that few would have predicted following the departure of legendary coach Christian Streich last season.

Julian Schuster has exceeded expectations in his first season in the Freiburg hot seat. (IMAGO/Arne Amberg)

Schuster, the club's former defensive midfielder and captain, stepped forward to accept the task of leading Freiburg on. Although boasting 242 club appearances for the side, the recently-turned 40-year-old was a newbie to leading a team in the top flight.

With no learning curve coaching at this level, the one-time VfB Stuttgart youth has found his groove in no time at all.

"It's my first year, and yet everything feels so familiar and 'normal,' it's crazy," the tactician said recently, in an interview with local publication Freiburger Wochenbericht.

Currently enjoying their fourth-best run in the top division ever, it's easy to see why Freiburg fans have been so impressed with Schuster's transition, especially after the upset caused when former leader and icon Streich decided to call it a day after 13 years and almost 500 games in charge.

Freiburg have only been ranked higher once at this stage of a Bundesliga season: namely back in 1994/95, when the team finished behind champions Borussia Dortmund and second-placed Werder Bremen.

Back then, however, there was no Champions League participation for third place, unlike now, when fourth is good enough to advance to European club football's elite competition. Achieving that feat would be a club first.

Whatever happens, Freiburg's end-of-term report will be glowing, and filled with records. Winning five of their opening seven Bundesliga games had never been achieved before. The 5-0 victory against Bremen on Matchday 23 represented the biggest winning margin at home in a Bundesliga match for the Black-Forest side. There were also the six consecutive clean sheets during the campaign, another club best in the top tier.

The latter amounted to 609 minutes without conceding, with goalkeeper Noah Atubolu going on to keep 10 clean sheets in his 24 games. Only Leipzig's Péter Gulácsi (13) and Bayern Munich's Manuel Neuer (11) have managed more.

In front of the custodian, a highly effective defence that weighs in with goals has played its part in Freiburg's success. The team's defenders have provided 13 goals this season – the Bundesliga's best total from that position.

Lukas Kübler alone has scored five times, more than any other defender. Matthias Ginter and Philipp Lienhart have been colossal, the partnership being one of the reasons Freiburg have only given up 25 big chances across the entire campaign.

Slightly further forward, Patrick Osterhage and Maximilian Eggestein have put in the graft and hard running, averaging 11.7 and 12.2 kilometers per 90 minutes respectively while committing surprisingly few fouls for players in their position.

Getting fans on their feet have been the evergreen Vincenzo Grifo and Japanese wizard Ritsu Dōan, who boast 34 goal involvements between them. The former's 10 assists are bettered only by Bayern's Michael Olise (13) in the Bundesliga.

Dōan's collection of three long-range goals, meanwhile, is trumped by just one other player, Hoffenheim's Tom Bischof (four). In fact, altogether, Freiburg have scored with 10 goals from distance, third only to Bayern (14 times) and Leverkusen (11).

Unafraid to give youth its chance in a squad that contains several seasoned pros, Schuster has been rewarded by the performances of defenders Jordy Makengo and Max Rosenfelder. Club captain Christian Günter as well as Kübler, Grifo and Nicolas Höfler have all had to settle for a place on the bench at one time or another.

"The squad has developed so well over the past few years, meaning we’ve got real depth and quality here," the coach explained. “I think it’s a real positive, particularly at the end of a season. I obviously have tough decisions to make," Schuster added. "As coach, you want the lads to not accept your decision and to then work even harder in training.

“If someone performs better in training, what arguments do I have as a coach to say I should leave them out? If I do that, I'll have completely different problems in the dressing room. Nevertheless, it's precisely this balancing act that matters."

That balance is what appears to be favouring Freiburg now, as they look to take one more step towards history.

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