Michael Gregoritsch: "The toughest game of the season"

FC Augsburg have a very special home game waiting for them on Saturday – the record champions are coming to town. After taking a point from Leverkusen last time out, FCA have the confidence boost they need: Manuel Baum’s men want to stop Bayern München in their tracks. Michael Gregoritsch has not been able to enjoy victory against Bayern in his career so far – the 23-year-old played two games in the Allianz Arena for HSV, conceding a total of 13 goals, but despite this, he has a positive outlook for Augsburg’s next game: "IT’s the toughest game of the season. Bayern have the best players and it plays on my mind that I’ve not scored against them in five attempts. Of course we’ll want to give our all against Bayern," said Gregoritsch. Manuel Baum is not the only person at FCA who’s watched Bayern’s last two games, against Dortmund and in the Champions League – the Austrian forward has kept a close eye on Saturday’s opposition as well. "It’s impressive how they can turn up against the third-place team, play like that and have the game wrapped up by half time. That shows you how strong Bayern are and shows you the power they have in their team. In the Champions League as well, they came from behind, turned the game around – they are world class," Gregortisch analyses. Michael Gregoritsch is approaching the game against Bayern with a cool head, taking the opposition just as seriously as he takes any other team: "You can crumble against any team, as we saw when Hoffenheim beat Köln 6-0 at the weekend – the result obviously looks really bad, but I won’t be going into the game hoping we don’t lose by a high score," explains Gregoritsch. "We need to be very, very aggressive and play our game perfectly for 90 minutes, because Bayern will punish all our mistakes instantly. We need a good day, Bayern need a bad one, but every game starts with Bayern being the favourites. Our aim is to stop Bayern winning, and we’ll give everything to do that," he added.

Lucky charm

In Michael Gregortisch’s first game, he scored a brace, thanks in part to his lucky charm: his hairband. "That’s been a running gag since that season. My hair is long enough again now and I feel comfortable wearing he hairband," said Gregoritsch. The Austrian feels comfortable at FCA in general: "The boss puts his trust in me and so does the club; I feel 100% happy here and I like being at FC Augsburg."