The Werkself head coach experienced on the opening day of the league campaign how the newly promoted club surprised Bayer 04 with a passionate performance at the BayArena. The encounter on matchday one saw Bayer 04 win 3-2 – at the same time Paderborn did not make it easy for the Werkself as Bosz recalls: "We did win but the game was very open. It was an attractive match for the fans but I'd have liked more control as the coach." His team has developed since the meeting in the middle of August but it definitely won't be any easier.
On top of that, there is a run of five games without a win. "We can't afford to let it get to us. We are making mistakes and we have to learn from them but we're also doing a lot of things right. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to create as many chances. You can never get everything right in football but we can do more things better. We need to be more decisive, particularly in the final third," declared the 55-year-old ahead of the first meeting with Paderborn in the domestic cup competition and he once again stressed what it would come down to: "We have to have control – that's very important when you're playing an attacking game. Otherwise it will be an end-to-end encounter."
The Werkself have reached the Round of 16 in six of the last seven DFB Cup campaigns and will be expecting to go through this time too: "We have to win tomorrow's game. The DFB Cup is very important to the club, to me and to us all," emphasised the head coach but he also sounded a warning about Paderborn who had a boost at the weekend. After beating SV Rödinghausen in the first round of the DFB Cup, SCP clocked up their second win of the season. "We won't underestimate Paderborn. They are a good and dangerous team who've shown the right mentality in recent games and they always look to get forward. They'll try that again tomorrow," said Bosz with confidence.
Bosz was waiting until after the final pre-match training session before choosing his team – that will also depend on the availability of Kai Havertz, who is recovering from illness and Sven Bender, who suffered another problem with his ankle that saw him substituted against Werder on Saturday. With Wendell, "that's not the case," said the Dutchman who will also have to manage without Charles Aránguiz, Daley Sinkgraven and Leon Bailey.
Match information:
Tickets: Tickets are still available for the game – ticket offices are open two hours before kick-off-off. Print@home tickets are also available.
Referee: Sven Jablonski (Bremen)
Live TV broadcaster: Sky
Matchday hashtag: #B04SCP
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