Maaßen: “We will go there full of energy”
Friday night under the floodlights against Stuttgart
First Team
20.04.2023, 14:04
Matchday 29 in the Bundesliga will kick off on Friday evening (20:30 CEST) with FC Augsburg taking on VfB Stuttgart. The Függerstädter will try to pick up their sixth home victory this season in front of a sold-out crowd.
“We want the game to go in our favour and we can only do that if we show the right attitude and approach in the match,” said head coach Enrico Maaßen. FCA are five points ahead of sixteenth-placed Stuttgart in the table, who are still unbeaten under their new coach Sebastian Hoeneß and drew 3-3 against Dortmund the week before. “Stuttgart have had positive results recently, but we are only looking at ourselves,” said Maaßen.
FCA gave everything recently in the 3-2 defeat against Leipzig, but it was not enough to secure a point. According to Maaßen, the fact that Augsburg are now in action again on a Friday evening is “hopefully a good omen,” since they have won all three matches on Friday this season (against Bremen, Leverkusen and Hoffenheim). “We will go there full of energy,” the 39-year-old promised.
Berisha missing but Demirović back
The home side will be without captain Jeffrey Gouweleeuw, who received his tenth yellow card against Leipzig and will therefore be suspended for the game. Maaßen revealed that Felix Uhuokhai will take over captaincy, while the injured Mergim Berisha (“there is still too much pain”) and Rafał Gikiewicz will miss another game, as will Kelvin Yeboah and Fredrik Jensen, who got a knock on his ankle. Maaßen, however, already has some other solutions in mind and said, “We have a lot of quality in the squad and good options.”
One of these is Ermedin Demirović, who returns to the squad after serving his suspension. “Demi is a real leader both on and off the pitch. He is a complete madman, is popular with lots of players in the dressing room and works incredibly hard out there on the pitch,” explained Maaßen. The FCA head coach is particularly looking forward to the fact that the WWK Arena will be sold out for the fourth time in a row on Friday night: “This is amazing and gives the team added motivation. Now it’s up to us to perform.”
