West Ham United and SC Freiburg may never have faced one another prior to this season, but they are certainly well-acquainted now.
Thursday's UEFA Europa League round of 16 second leg will be the fourth time the teams have locked horns in 2023/24, after the pair were drawn together both in the group stage and at this point in the competition.
The first two fixtures - in Group A - yielded Hammers victories, but Freiburg turned the tables a week ago, winning 1-0 at the Stadion am Wolfswinkel to give them the edge heading into the second leg.
For Freiburg boss Christian Streich, he says that home success - sealed thanks to Michael Gregoritsch's late strike - will give the Breisgau Brazilians belief that they can complete the job, although he is expecting a strong riposte from the Irons.
And having watched West Ham's come-from-behind draw with Burnley at the weekend, he knows they possess attacking options from the bench too.
"We know we can really achieve something on Thursday but we don’t want to think too much about that," Streich said in his pre-match press conference at London Stadium. "We need to do our work and afterwards we can talk about what we have achieved.
"We would have the same game plan whether it was a 0-0 draw or if we had lost 1-0 in the first leg, it doesn’t matter.
"It’s about how we can implement our game plan, how much courage we can show, how many questions [we can ask West Ham] and how we can defend as a group.
"We have trained for all of that, of course the other team have trained for that also. We have to make the most of that, so we can anticipate [the challenge] because that’s what you need against the top teams, like West Ham.
"What is important is that we mustn’t let West Ham dominate the rhythm of the game. We need to take charge and have control of the tempo of the game.
"West Ham can always use another option. That’s what we observed in the last game against Burnley – Danny Ings scored two goals, only one of them counted. Antonio was another one, and there is a question mark over Emerson.
"So we have to really analyse it carefully and prepare the boys for the other team."
The long-serving Freiburg coach also revealed that centre-back Philipp Leinhart is available again after returning from a groin injury, but winger Noah Weisshaupt is sidelined.
Meanwhile, with two of this week's four UEFA Champions League ties having gone to penalties, the thought of this fixture going all the way has inevitably crossed Streich's mind.
However, he is focused on getting the job done whichever way it comes.
"Of course everybody has to practise three or four penalties," he added. "We have practised a few, but I did’t want to attach too much importance to it.
"We’ll talk about it again tonight and tomorrow so we have a plan, but we haven’t really made a big deal out of it.
"The boys see individual video clips to prepare for the game, but we don’t want to overload them."
