Baum: "Presents are only given at Christmas!"

Head Coach Manuel Baum doesn’t want to give away three easy points when FC Augsburg travel to the Allianz Arena to face FC Bayern München on Tuesday (20:30 CEST). FCA are highly motivated and want to defy the odds by defeating the runaway Bundesliga leaders, who are favourites for the match. There is only one task on the agenda for FC Augsburg going into this week’s mid-week fixture away at FC Bayern München. Just three days after an unformate 3-2 home defeat to SV Werder Bremen, FCA head coach Manuel Baum has a plan for the task at hand. “We don’t want to give away three easy points. I am always confident that we can come away with three points. The way that the team played last time out, coming back from 2-0 down, shows that a good result is definitely achievable if we put in a solid performance for the full 90 minutes.” Baum was frustrated after the disappointment against Bremen, but he is now looking ahead to the trip to Munich. “I don’t believe we gain anything by dwelling on what happened on Saturday. We have to look ahead to tomorrow and put the Bremen game behind us. I have also spoken to Fabian Giefer over the phone and said the same to him. The team fully support Fabi and he views the situation in the same way as me.” FCA suffered a setback in the Bremen match as Korean midfielder Ja-Cheol Koo suffered a swollen knee. His name has been added to a growing injury list at the club. However, Baum has some alternative names in mind. “Felix Götze and Jan Moravek provide two options and Michael Gregoritsch could also drop into midfield if we play Sergio Córdova in attack. We hope to have Koo back in time for the Freiburg match.” Baum also had praise for academy graduate Marco Richter: “Unfortunately we had to take off Marco late in the first half on Saturday but it is important for him to experience something like this. This was one of those days where things were not going well and that’s normal. The most important thing he can do is to learn how to deal with situations like this and how he responds. We are sure that the whole team will bounce back from the disappointment of falling 2-0 down on Saturday. Tuesday’s away match with Bayern will give FCA the opportunity to pick themselves back up from the disappointing result against Werder.