SC Freiburg vs. SC Braga preview: Team news and predicted lineups

SC Freiburg vs. SC Braga preview: Team news and predicted lineups

Julian Schuster’s side will hope to reverse last week’s defeat in Braga as they host the Portuguese side at the Europa-Park Stadion on Thursday night. Carlos Vicens’ men won the first leg after Mario Dorgeles benefited from Noah Atubolu’s 92nd-minute howler.

Freiburg’s goalkeeper saved yet another penalty-kick before his mistake gave a slight advantage for the 2010/11 Europa League finalists. Vincenzo Grifo scored the goal for the Bundesliga outfit as the first two goals came inside the opening 15 minutes.

Both teams drew their respective league games on Sunday, 1-1. Substitute Philipp Lienhart denied relegation-threatened Wolfsburg three points in Dieter Hecking’s 450th Bundesliga game, while midtable side Estoril held Braga to a stalemate.

Dorgeles, whose only 2026 goals came in the domestic cup competitions before Thursday, found the net for the second time in three days. Braga only need a single point from the remaining two games to secure a European spot, although the gap with third-placed Sporting is now 19 points.

As for Freiburg, the Breisgau Brazilians climbed to seventh place as Eintracht Frankfurt fell to a home defeat to HSV. However, Yuito Suzuki’s injury in the closing stages of Sunday’s game against Wolfsburg was a huge blow as the in-form Japanese is out for the rest of the season.

Suzuki scored three goals in the previous knockout stage ties against Genk and . Nonetheless, the atmosphere is still upbeat at Freiburg. The game was refereed as "One of the biggest games in the club's history," by the captain Christian Günter.