Freiburg vs TSC prediction: EUROPE: Europa League – Group Stage betting tips on match 2023-11-08 20:00.
A disappointing start to the season sees Freiburg sitting outside the Bundesliga European places, but after a 96th-minute equaliser earned them a point against Borussia Mönchengladbach at the weekend, they do at least come into this clash on a high. They signed off their last UEFA Europa League game on a high too, beating TSC Bačka Topola to place their qualification destiny into their own hands.
The German outfit only trail Group A leaders West Ham thanks to UEFA’s H2H tiebreaker rules, with a potentially decisive trip to the London Stadium still to come on matchday six in December. Only the winners of the group will progress automatically to the last 16, so Freiburg would be wise not to look too far ahead, especially given they’ve lost back-to-back UEL home games.
Before that trip to London comes around for Freiburg though, they must take on both TSC BaÄŤka Topola and Olympiacos. TSC are up first, a side making their UEL group stage debut this season, and the Serbians have endured a difficult start to their group stage campaign, having picked up just one point from nine available (D1, L2), largely due to the fact they've conceded at least twice in each of those games.
Thursday will see Žarko Lazetić’s side play in Germany for the first-time ever having lost out 3-1 in the reverse fixture on matchday three. One positive for the Serbian outfit was that they took the lead in that game, just as they did at West Ham before going on to lose by the same scoreline. Strangely though, the only UEL group game they’ve not scored first in so far came at home to Olympiacos where they earned their sole point so far, coming from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 with the Greeks, showing the first goal isn’t always key to the result in TSC games.
Players to watch: Freiburg’s Vincenzo Grifo is the joint-top scorer in the UEL group stages so far (4) having netted a hat-trick in Serbia against TSC last time out, including the opener from the penalty spot. TSC have averaged 12.3 fouls per game in the UEL this season, and midfielder Ifet Dakovac is responsible for most of those (7), though has so far avoided picking up a single booking!
Hot stat: TSC’s last five away games in all competitions saw exactly two match goals.