Overview
Celta Vigo had to go through a thorny journey to reach the quarter-finals of the UEFA Europa League, when they only ranked 16th in the group stage and were forced to play in the play-off round.
The Galician team successively overcame PAOK FC in the play-offs before creating a surprise by eliminating Lyon with a total score of 3-1 to win a ticket to the quarter-finals against SC Freiburg.
However, their hopes of repeating their achievement in the semi-finals of the 2016-2017 season are becoming slim after a heavy 0-3 defeat to Freiburg in the first leg.
Not stopping there, Celta continued to disappoint when losing 0-3 at home in La Liga to Real Oviedo - a team in the dangerous group. This result caused them to drop to sixth place and be two points behind Real Betis in the top 5 race.
Claudio Giraldez's team has lost 3/4 of their last matches in all competitions, and conceded 12 goals during that time. If they want to nurture hopes of a comeback, their defense must improve significantly in the second leg.
However, Balaidos is still a solid support when Celta has won 4/6 home matches in European competitions this season, although they have not had any wins with a difference of 3 goals or more.
In stark contrast to their opponent, SC Freiburg advanced straight to the round of 16 after finishing the group stage in seventh place. Julian Schuster's team continued to show strength when they came back against KRC Genk in the round of 16, winning an impressive 5-1 victory at home at Europa-Park and advanced with a total score of 6-1.
Freiburg's sublime form was maintained in the first leg of the quarter-finals when they defeated Celta Vigo 3-0, with goals from Vincenzo Grifo, Jan-Niklas Beste and Matthias Ginter.
The 1-0 victory away from home against Mainz 05 last weekend also helped Freiburg keep a clean sheet for the second consecutive match, while increasing the number of wins to 4/5 recent matches in all competitions (1 loss).
Currently ranked eighth in the Bundesliga, Freiburg will have an away match in Spain within the European framework for the first time since the 0-2 defeat to Sevilla in the Europa League group stage in the 2013-2014 season.
However, Freiburg's away form in the Europa League this season is not too impressive when they only won 1/5 matches (2 draws, 2 losses), but it is noteworthy that both defeats were only with a minimum difference.
Personnel situation
Celta Vigo is expected to be without Carl Starfelt, Mihailo Ristic, Miguel Roman and Hugo Alvarez due to injury.
In the opposite direction, defender Javi Rodriguez will return to the squad after serving a one-match suspension for accumulating enough yellow cards, absent from the defeat against Real Oviedo.
Claudio Giraldez is likely to make some adjustments in the starting lineup. Oscar Mingueza, Ilaix Moriba and Borja Iglesias are all competing for a starting spot.
On the away team side, Freiburg continues to be without the service of two injured players, Patrick Osterhage and Max Rosenfelder.
Meanwhile, Daniel-Kofi Kyereh is still in the process of recovering his fitness and just had a match for the U23 Freiburg team, but the time to return to the first team has not yet been determined.
After rotating the force in the weekend match, Julian Schuster is likely to return to using the main squad that played in the first leg last week.
Expected lineup:
Celta Vigo: Radu, Rodriguez, Aidoo, Alonso, Mingueza, Vecino, Moriba, Carreira, Lopez, Swedberg, Iglesias.
Atubolu, Kubler, Ginter, Lienhart, Makengo, Eggestein, Manzambi, Beste, Suzuki, Grifo, Matanovic.
The match between Celta Vigo and Freiburg takes place at 11:45 PM on April 16 (Vietnam time).
