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16.02.2017Bundesliga

Werkself looking for win and goal number 50,000

Who will score the 50,000th goal in the history of the Bundesliga? That is the main subject for discussion in the build-up to Friday night’s match between the Werkself and FC Augsburg (20.30 CET). 49,999 goals have been scored in the top flight since 1963. At the pre-match press conference, head coach Roger Schmidt said he would be happy to see Bayer 04 secure that milestone:
© Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fussball GmbH

“It would be great if we can score that historic goal. It would be the opener and we always look to take the lead.” However: “It will be difficult against Augsburg as they’ve been much more solid in defence over the past few weeks.”

Ahead of the “exciting phase” with the Augsburg-Spiel and the ensuing fixture list starting with home games in the Champions League against Atlético Madrid on Tuesday night and the Bundesliga against FSV Mainz 05, Roger Schmidt declared: “We know what to expect. The sooner our players are on top form, the better our chances of getting something out of those games. But we’re just focussed on FC Augsburg at the moment. After a good final training session we’ll fly to Augsburg and try to influence proceedings there, assert ourselves and come out on top.”

Schmidt sees Augsburg as a “difficult opponent” who “again and again manage to put opponents off their game. We have to take account of how they’ll play and we’ll probably have to defend a lot of high balls. Augsburg have a good target man in Bobadilla who can hold the ball up and lay off to the quick players coming up in support. We’re ready for them.”

Tah, Toprak and Calhanoglu sidelined

There was good news on the injury front for Aleksandar Dragovic: “Aleks has been in full training all week. With him and Tin Jedvaj we have two top players as options in central defence. It’s very important as Jonathan Tah is still injured and Ömer Toprak is suspended.” In addition, Hakan Calhanoglu is also ruled out for the rest of the season. All the other players are fit. There is a question mark over Lars Bender. “Lars had a slight problem after the intense game against Frankfurt caused by his very long injury lay-off. But they are general issues. We’ll have to wait until tomorrow to see if he’s available. I can’t be certain at the moment.”

© Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fussball GmbH

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