The head coach on the game: Nine first team players have been unavailable to the Dutchman over the past few days. While the first internationals returned to Leverkusen at the start of the week, Lukas Hradecky and Charles Aránguiz played for their countries against Armenia on Tuesday and in the USA in the night to Thursday morning respectively. That meant Aránguiz was unavailable for the final pre-match training session in Leverkusen on Thursday morning. "It's annoying but unfortunately that's the way it is. Of course, I'd rather have the players with me for longer before the first game," said Bosz with a critical assessment of the international call-ups. "We have to deal with it and we're trying to do as well as we can," said the Dutchman ahead of the exciting clash with Hoffenheim who are just four points behind the Werkself at the moment. Above all, the Werkself head coach is looking for his team to improve on the performance in the 3-1 defeat against Werder Bremen. He clearly pointed out the weak points in the game and worked on them with the group. "I hope the players can put that into action tomorrow against Hoffenheim. Although the systems aren't the same there are aspects of Hoffenheim's game that are similar to Bremen's," said Bosz. Accordingly, the 55-year-old is expecting a "very interesting game." Not least because his opposite number Julian Nagelsmann likes to vary the way his team plays. "It's not always the same, it changes – that's why it will be a very interesting game for me too as a coach," said Bosz.
The personnel situation: The Werkself international players have returned to Leverkusen without any injuries to date. Lukas Hradecky returned on Wednesday. He has trained as little as Charles Aránguiz who played nearly the whole 90 minutes for Chile in a friendly in the USA overnight. "Charly will land in Frankfurt airport this morning and travel straight on to Sinsheim so I'll only see him again at the hotel tonight,"added Bosz, who is due to set off this afternoon with the rest of the squad to the Kraichgau. The Dutchman will make a decision on whether the Chilean can play against Hoffenheim after talking to the 29-year-old: "When I saw that Charlie was only substituted in the last minute I was worried it might be due to an injury. But fortunately that wasn't the case. Nevertheless: It's a long journey and he was playing at 2 o'clock in the morning our time – so that's not ideal." Lars Bender, who missed training on Sunday and Monday due to cold symptoms was back on the training ground yesterday. Wendell is definitely not available for the Hoffenheim match after picking up a fifth yellow card in the game against Werder Bremen.
The referee: The match will be refereed by Harm Osmers. Up-to-date, the 34-year-old from Hannover has been in charge of six Bundesliga games involving the Werkself – the last time was a 2-0 defeat away to FC Köln last term. Osmers also refereed last season's home game against Hoffenheim (2-2). The business administrator will be assisted by Thomas Gorniak and Robert Kempter at the PreZero Arena in Sinsheim and the fourth official is Florian Badstübner. Günter Perl and Tobias Reichel are the video referees.
The previous meeting: TSG Hoffenheim were the visitors at the BayArena on matchday 10. Like the Werkself, the team under Julian Nagelsmann also had a mixed start to the season but at that time were two points ahead of the Black and Reds (11 points). Nevertheless: With the help of significant away wins against Bremen in the league (6-2) and against Gladbach in the DFB Cup (5-0), the Werkself were in confident mood before the last encounter. And that was evident in the start made by the team coached by Heiko Herrlich: Lars Bender and Co. had the first shots on goal. After a shot from Kevin Volland was blocked Hoffenheim's Kasim Adams turned the ball into his own net but unfortunately for the Werkself the goal was ruled out by referee Tobias Stieler. Instead, the visitors took the lead on 19 minutes when Reiss Nelson curled the ball into the net beyond the reach of Lukas Hradecky. The Werkself refused to give up and levelled the scores with a deserved equaliser from Karim Bellarabi on the half-hour mark. It wasn't 1-1 for long as Joelinton restored the visitors' lead three minutes later. The Werkself conceded a third goal just after the restart: Vincenzo Grifo converted a penalty (48') after Joelinton fell over Jonathan Tah's leg in the penalty area. The hosts upped their game from that point, took the initiative and penned TSG back – but the ball did not want to go into the opposition net on that November day. It was different for the clinical visitors who saw Joelinton Round off the scoring with a third goal making it 4-1 on 77 minutes. A tough result for the Black and Reds given the course of the game.
