This is the final week of games in an incredible year for the club, which has included qualifying for the Europa League, reaching the final of the DFB-Pokal and making the knockouts this season in the Europa League. Going into matchday 13, SC are third in the league and also still in the Pokal.

This home game against Köln kicks off the final week of matches, which includes a midweek fixture too away to RB Leipzig. The last match of 2022 for Freiburg is a week Sunday at home to current league leaders Union Berlin. Following that, the Bundesliga will break for the World Cup in Qatar and matchday 16 will commence in January. Head coach Christian Streich doesn’t feel that the busy week will be an issue as his side are used to them. “We’ve been playing every three days. The team has been excellent in dealing with that.”

Following the draw in Baku, which Christian Günter was pleased with, the captain is looking forward to the final week of action before the break. “We’ve got three games to go and we want the best possible results. The atmosphere will be amazing once again on Sunday and hopefully we can give Köln a great game.”

A first for Effzeh

Köln were knocked out of the Conference League on Thursday and will therefore not take part in European competition after the winter break. “We will learn a lot from our time in this competition,” said coach Steffen Baumgart, whose club will visit the Europa-Park Stadion for the first time ever this weekend. Their away trip to Freiburg last season was to the old Dreisamstadion, and it ended 1-1, while the meeting in Cologne finished 1-0 to the hosts. Currently, Effzeh are sat in 10th in the table. Their last two away games have been poor, however. Baumgart’s men conceded five goals in each of their matches away to Gladbach and Mainz.

Schade a doubt

Streich rotated his team for the game away to Qarabag. Kevin Schade is a doubt for this match after suffering a calf injury. Daniel-Kofi Kyereh missed the final group game in the Europa League with muscular problems. “We’ll have to wait and see how fit they are on Sunday,” reported Streich.