Motherwell ready for pain game in Freiburg glamour clash as 'fearless' approach enlisted amid new injury blows

The Steelmen are two games away from a lucrative spot in the league phase but last season’s Europa League finalists pose a huge challenge for an injury-hit Fir Park side, leg one coming on their own patch, before travelling to Germany next week. Australian duo Oscar Priestman and Johnny Koutroumbis are added to their already sizeable treatment room after picking up blows amid a hectic Fir Park schedule.

Tom Sparrow is struggling with bruising and Dylan Williams missed both legs of the third round qualifier against HJK Helsinki, a 1-1 draw in Finland, before winning 2-0 in ML1. Stephen O’Donnell, Apostolos Stamatelopoulos and Eythor Bjorgolfsson have been added to their UEFA squad list for these matches but need assessed having not played yet this season. Callum Hendry, Paul McGinn and Jordan McGhee are longer-term absentees but striker Seb Palmer-Houlden is contention to feature after signing for an undisclosed fee from Gillingham.

How will Motherwell approach match vs Freiburg?

Johansson faced off against Bundesliga opposition last year at this stage in the Conference League while Rosenborg manager. His team secured a memorable 2-1 at home over Mainz but lost 4-1 away from home and the 35-year-old learned valuable lessons from those encounters. Like what happened away at HJK and in their opening day Premiership win versus Hibs, Johansson knows Freiburg will put Motherwell under intense pressure, but they must come through that to boost their chances of creating a shock.

“I'm not sure that we'll use the same game plan as we did in that game,” he said. “What I am sure is that we will try to be ourselves in as much parts of the games that we possibly can, knowing that it's a really strong opponent and we're going to have to, like we had to against Helsinki at times, suffer as well and be a really strong unit defensively because you can't expect to dominate the game with 80% ball possession against teams like this.

“Also going to Hibs, we had to dig deep and suffer at times, and we had to also be brave and play our way at times. I believe we'll have to approach this game in a very similar way and fancy our chances. You need to approach these games in a fearless way and be brave to still do your thing and not showing too much respect because that's what also helped us against Helsinki, that we maintained ourselves and that's very important.”

Jake Girdwood-Reich is a likely starter in defence and has impressed since arriving in the summer from St Louis City SC. He has found the schedule demanding but it helps having glamour games like the Freiburg clash which will rank amongst the biggest in his career.

“It’s been very hard if I am being honest,” the Australian centre-back said. “It has been so good for me. I came later in pre-season and it has helped me get in shape. It is competitive games so you have to perform. I have never done so many Thursday and Sunday games. It is new for me but I have really enjoyed it. Freiburg finished seventh in the Bundesliga and got to the Europa League final. It is a really good test to see where I am at.”