Team news and predicted lineups

Here is our preview of Thursday’s Europa League knockout round play-off clash between SC Freiburg and RC Lens, including predicted lineups.

After a 0-0 draw in the first leg in France, Freiburg and Lens will meet in the return leg of their Europa League knockout round playoff match at the Europa-Park Stadium on Thursday.

Speaking at his pre-match press conference on Wednesday, Freiburg coach Christian Streich expressed his satisfaction with his side’s performance away in France and urged his players to play in a similar manner in the return leg.

“We did well against Lens because we did very well when we weren’t in possession. We should have won the game, as we had the better chances. We’ll try to work like that again so that we don’t give Lens too many chances,” said Streich.

Freiburg haven’t won in their last five games, but showed great spirit in their comeback 3-3 draw with Eintracht Frankfurt on Sunday, in which they trailed three times.

“Scoring three goals is always good, but conceding three is not so good,” said attacking talisman Vincenzo Grifo, who sat alongside Streich at the pre-match press conference.

“Lens have good individual quality. But we were able to create our chances in the first leg and we need to do the same [on Thursday]. And then we want to be more efficient.”

Mathias Ginter is back in training and could return to the Freiburg squad, but the Breisgau side are likely to be without Yannik Keitel in addition to long-term absentees Daniel Kofi-Kyereh, Philipp Lienhart and Kenneth Schmidt.

Kevin Danso (suspended), Jimmy Cabot (knee) and Deiver Machado (muscle) are out for the French away side.

Click here to see our predicted Freiburg vs. Lens lineups.

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