When Freiburg’s soccer player around goalkeeper Atubolu (2nd from right) celebrate with their fans like recently in Kiel, the European Cup song will also be sung.
Photo: Imago/Arne Amberg
Noah Atubolu has heard the European Cup song of the Freiburg fans in the past few weeks at Bundesliga games of the sports club, the Breisgauer goalkeeper has now also been reliable. There is no talk of a flight over the Alps, as a reporter recently wanted to show him when playing in Kiel. “I think it means” We drive across the Alps’, “corrected Atubolu carefully – and then completed the song, which also deals with travel destinations such as Baku and London. “Because,” according to the song presented by the keeper’s core message: “Freiburg plays internationally.”
The big coup
That has been stuck to the direct relegation Holstein since the 2-1 last weekend. The Europa League is already certain of Julian Schuster’s team in its premiere season as head coach. In the direct duel with the third -placed Frankfurters, Freiburg can still land the very big coup: a home win against the recently somewhat unsettled Eintracht – and the South Badeners would not only be there for the first time in the Champions League, but also third in the Bundesliga.
In the event of a Freiburg success, this Saturday in the three-way battle for the last two royal class tickets it doesn’t matter what the fifth from Dortmund does in parallel against Kiel. “Our starting point is sensational,” says ball catcher atubolu, born in Freiburg and grew up in the difficult, neglected district of Weingarten. The past Sunday – with Dortmund’s victory in Leverkusen and the Frankfurt draw against St. Pauli – could not have run worse from the SC’s point of view. Because for safe participation in the Champions League, a victory of BVB also needs a Freiburg victory over Eintracht Frankfurt.
Foresight
But already they are very proud of their club in the student city, where thousands will break up a fan march for the stadium on Saturday. After all, the fact that the transition from cult trainer Christian Streich would go to the job prepared for the job for years without greater crunches, so it was not to be expected even on the SC planning with a lot of foresight.
It fits that CFO Oliver Leki does not hide the fact that you are now facing a “final” in the Bundesliga, in which it will be “really exciting”, but already made it clear: “The Europa League is also an interesting competition in which you can make a lot of money.” 2023 and 2024 went to the round of 16.
Grounded masterminds
In Breisgau, it cannot be heard in Breisgau that the Champions League could be too big, as midfield director Nadiem Amiri recently speculated from the perspective of FSV Mainz. But if you know the humility deeply anchored at the SC on the basis of the SC, you suspect that one or the other very grounded masterminds should be winced properly when Atubolu explained after the victory in Kiel: “If the starting point is as it is, and of course you want to get the best possible out.”
The best possible is third, the club was only so good once – 30 years ago. The associated jump up to the very big calibers of European football would be the “crowning glory” of a season for CFO Leki, “which we can no longer break,” as sports director Jochen Saier said.
Development steps in the second half of the season
Hope to be able to compete with Inter Milan, Liverpool or Real Madrid from September gives Breisgauer an important step in the second half of the season. In the first half of the season, the SC regularly slapped the SC against the big ones in the Bundesliga that Schuster’s team also worries about moving into the premier class because of the negative goal difference. The fact that the SC stabilized in duels with top teams recently showed the 2-2 against the dethroned master Leverkusen two weeks ago.
However, it was not enough for a win against the six best teams next to Freiburg and seven defeats with a goal difference of 9:28 in eleven attempts. Experiment number twelve should now work – otherwise the SC could miss the Champions League for the third time after 2013, 2022 and 2023.
“Freiburg is known for throwing everything in,” says defense chief Robin Koch from the opponent Frankfurt, who played at the sports club from 2017 to 2020. At that time, Schuster was a connection trainer between the U19, U23 and the Bundesliga team. Now the Swabian native is boss at the professionals with his strict as it is as strict as it is also human -friendly – and blows the cheeks before the showdown against Frankfurt: »We still have a task and we said we are doing this to the last breath. And therefore, “according to the 40-year-old unmistakably,” we will do that too. “