The latest international break is over and 1. FC Union Berlin return to Bundesliga action on Saturday at the Stadion An der Alten Försterei against SC Freiburg.

Review: Union lose at Wolfsburg, Freiburg make strong start

The previous Bundesliga encounter for Urs Fischer’s team ended in defeat — by a solitary goal against Wolfsburg at the Volkswagen Arena. Wout Weghorst scored netted after 69 minutes to keep Oliver Glasner’s team on track for an unbeaten start. Union rallied with a few half chances, including a great strike by Robert Andrich in stoppage time but the home side ran out the victors. The Köpenick club haven’t won in the league since the 3-1 win over Borussia Dortmund, but have competed bravely at home with the likes of Werder Bremen and Eintracht Frankfurt who both narrowly took the three points.

Christian Streich’s Freiburg have made an impressive start to the campaign — albeit against a slightly easier level of opposition that Union have faced. Freiburg are fourth, two points off the top of the league at this stage and consistently looked dangerous up front and in wide areas. Streich’s side recently drew 2-2 at home to Borussia Dortmund, while winning in their last away match at Fortuna Düsseldorf. Freiburg trailed twice against Dortmund, but fought back with Luca Waldschmidt’s 55th minute effort and Manuel Akanji’s own goal in the last minute of the 90.

Record: Union took the points from Freiburg in 2016

Union have suffered defeat in three of the five previous matches against Freiburg. The most recent, the final game of the 2015/16 season, was the single win for the Köpenick club. Union sealed a 2-1 win to close the curtain on the campaign with Freiburg already assured of promotion to the top division. In all five meetings with Union, Freiburg have been able to score. Keven Schlotterbeck, on loan from Freiburg to Union, will potentially face his brother Nico who is playing for Streich’s team.

Personnel: Gogia & Prömel remain out

Fischer confirmed in the pre-match press conference that Akaki Gogia and Grischa Prömel were still injured. Suleiman Abdullahi has trained the whole week, but had a minor setback yesterday — the same for Sheraldo Becker. Florian Hübner is a candidate for the squad having trained the last fortnight and come through 30 minutes against Dynamo Dresden last week.

Service: No tickets left

Saturday’s game is sold out — the last chance to get tickets is to check the club’s official secondary ticket market.

As normal, the club encourages all supporters to use the various means of public transport as there are few parking spaces in the immediate grounds of the stadium.

There are places to lock your bike if you are travelling this way.