Matchday 8 of the Bundesliga regular season brings FC Augsburg and SC Freiburg together at the WWK Arena on October 31. Eight rounds in, the table is starting to take shape. Freiburg arrive in third place and Augsburg sit ninth, so the visitors hold a clear advantage in the standings.

The primary storyline is the contrast between that league position and recent results. Freiburg's third place sits alongside three consecutive defeats across all competitions: a 2-1 loss at Bayer Leverkusen on October 18, a 3-0 loss at Monaco in the UEFA Europa Conference League on October 22, and a 3-1 home loss to Bayern München on October 25. They did win their two matches before that run, 2-1 against FC Schalke 04 on October 11 and 3-2 against FK Jablonec on October 15. Playing in Europe on October 22 and in the league three days later is also a schedule factor for J. Schuster's side.

Augsburg's form is less dramatic but has produced few wins. In their last four Bundesliga matches they lost 3-2 at Werder Bremen on September 19, drew 2-2 with Bayern on October 10, lost 4-3 at SV Elversberg on October 17 and drew 1-1 with Union Berlin on October 24. Those matches produced 18 goals, so M. Baum's team has been involved in open, high-scoring contests, and has conceded ten times in those four league games.

Neither club has reported any unavailable players, so both managers should have their full squads to choose from. Augsburg can call on options such as Gregoritsch, Ibrahimović and Claude-Ma