West Ham vs Freiburg tips and predictions: Happy Hammers to make it a perfect 10 at home
Tomas Soucek
West Ham United can wrap up their Europa League group in style against Freiburg with a 10th consecutive home win in Europe.
West Ham and Freiburg are neck and neck with four wins apiece in the Europa League group stage, but the Irons hold the edge thanks to their win in Germany.
Goals from Lucas Paqueta and Naif Aguerd handed the Hammers the 2-1 win that sees them top the group despite a considerably worse goal difference.
While David Moyes’ side have scored eight and conceded four, Christian Streich’s side have averaged 3.4 goals per game.
The visitors hit TSC and Olympiakos for five at home and scored three against them on their travels. Vincenzo Griffo and Michael Gregoritsch have both netted hat-tricks.
It's probably fair to acknowledge the Premier League side have rotated more than Freiburg during the group games, and they’re in perfectly good goalscoring form domestically.
A tally of 26 goals in 16 games is a marked improvement for a side that averaged 1.10 goals per game last season.
Jarrod Bowen and Said Benrahma were top scorers with six apiece last season, but the England international has struck nine times this season already.
Being able to field the quality of Lucas Paqueta, Edson Alvarez and Mohammed Kudus together has taken Moyes’ team to another level, one potentially capable of reaching Europe by traditional means.
As prolific as they’ve been in this group, Freiburg have been limited to under 1.5 goals in all but on of their away Bundesliga fixtures and 16 of their previous 20.
Team news
Michail Antonio is nearing a return but is ruled out for this one. However, Alphonse Areola and Edson Alvarez stand a chance of making the squad if everyone has recovered from the sickness bug that has been rattling around the club for the last few days.
Visitors Freiburg are fighting fit and may field the same team that faced Wolfsburg at the weekend.
Key stats
- West Ham have won nine European home fixtures in a row
- West Ham are averaging 1.65 goals per game across all competitions
- Freiburg have scored 17 goals in five Europa League matches
- There have been over 2.5 goals in all five of Freiburg’s group matches
