2023-24 UEFA Europa League – Round of 16: First Leg – Freiburg vs West Ham

Freiburg host West Ham at Europa-Park Stadion in the first leg of their Round of 16 tie in 2023-24 Europa League. 

Freiburg advanced to this stage after beating Lens in their knockout play-off, whilst West Ham qualified for this stage as group winners – coincidentally ahead of Freiburg who finished second in their group.

 

Team News

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Philipp Lienhart is set to return for Freiburg from a lengthy groin injury.

Daniel Kofi-Kyereh (ACL), Max Rosenfelder (tendon), Lukas Kubler (hip) and Kenneth Schmidt (abdominal) remain ruled out.

West Ham have no fresh injury concerns to report following their Premier League victory at Everton last weekend.

Maxwel Cornet remains ruled out with a hamstring injury.

 

When is Kick-Off?

SC Freiburg host West Ham at Europa-Park Stadion on Thursday 7 March at 9pm CET (8pm UK Time), live on TNT Sports 2 in the UK.

 

Stat Attack

• Freiburg lost their two previous Europa League meetings against West Ham (L2), which came in the group stage of this season’s competition.
• West Ham won 2-1 in their only previous visit to Freiburg which came in October 2023.
• David Moyes’ Hammers scored twice in both previous meetings against Freiburg during the group stage.
• Michael Gregoritsch has scored four goals in Freiburg’s last two home matches in this season’s Europa League.
• This is the first time that West Ham are facing same European opposition in separate stages of the same UEFA competition in that season.

 

Prediction

With just one win in their last eight matches in all competitions despite scoring in six of those games, Freiburg have to be at their best here if want to avoid losing three meetings against the Hammers in one season, but they now have the experience of their two group clashes to call upon as motivation.

West Ham meanwhile have ended their recent eight-match rut with dominant wins in their last two games which is a real confidence booster coming into this trip, although they did have to be patient and come from behind at Everton which they did clinically so I do expect more of the same.

I though do think that much of this game will hang on how Freiburg have learned from their two group clashes and adapt here, but West Ham really should be able to nick this given that they look back on form again whilst Freiburg are lacking momentum in terms of results.

Prediction: Freiburg 1-2 West Ham

Result: Freiburg 1-0 West Ham