Today’s early kickoff is the season’s second Baden-Württemberg derby, as Freiburg travel to the Mercedes-Benz Arena to take on Stuttgart. The hosts are in seventeenth, and six points from safety after St. Pauli’s big win over Cologne yesterday lifted the Hamburg side out of the relegation zone. Freiburg are in sixth, and a victory today would move them up to just a point behind Hannover 96 in the race for the final European place.
Stuttgart Vs. Freiburg: Pre-Match Primer
Stuttgart have had a very poor season with the exception of their results in Europe and home thrashings against Borussia Mönchengladbach and Werder Bremen, while Freiburg have played far better than anyone expected. The visitors have benefited greatly from the form of Papiss Demba Cissé. who made an unexpectedly rapid return from injury and will start today. In spite of their poor overall form, Stuttgart picked up a potential vital point with a late Pavel Pogrebnyak goal in Dortmund last week, and have won each of their last four home games against Freiburg.
Stuttgart: Ulreich; Niedermeier, Tasci, Molinaro, Funk; Kuzmanovic, Träsch, Didavi, Gentner; Pogrebnyak, Marica
Subs: Ziegler, Harnik, Boka, Elson, Schipplock, Gebhart, Bicakcic
Freiburg: Baumann; Butscher, Barth, Bastians, Mujdza; Putsilo, Flum, Makiadi, Nicu, Rosenthal; Cissé
Subs: Salz, Toprak, Schmid, Pamic, Caligiuri, Yano, Jendrisek
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