"I can feel the anticipation too," admitted the Werkself head coach ahead of the clash with his former club. And this time there will hopefully be a better result than in last season's appearance of Bayer 04 at the Signal Iduna Park in Dortmund: The Black and Reds were unfortunate to lose 3-2 given a significantly higher amount of possession and a greater number of chances. "We played well but BVB ended up winning. And in football it's all about winning," the Dutchman declared. Now, after three defeats in succession against the Black and Yellows, it's finally time for a win at the 04th attempt.
The Werkself head coach refuses to be influenced by any talk of possible disruption for Dortmund after their recent defeat in the league away to newly promoted Union Berlin (1-3). Instead, Bosz wants to focus his attention on his own team: "It's not so important to me that BVB could be under more pressure. I always focus on my own team – the line-up, how we train or how we want to play against the opposition. Anything else doesn't interest me."
Peter Bosz has almost his full squad to choose from. On Friday afternoon, he still did not know how his players who were on international duty coped with the rigours of travel in yesterday's training session. "I'll decide later about who is available after the final training session," said Bosz who will probably only be without Joel Pohjanpalo (training deficit) against BVB. Today's birthday boy has just returned to full training this week after a persistent ankle injury. Sven Bender, who suffered a shoulder injury in training on Tuesday, also trained yesterday and should be available for tomorrow's game according to Bosz.
Tomorrow's game in Dortmund brings together the two teams who have had the most possession so far this season. While the Werkself are up to 72%, BVB have 75%. Bosz refused to venture an opinion on how open tomorrow's game could be: "We always want to play our own game both home and away."
Match information
Stadium: Signal Iduna Park (81,365 capacity)
Previous results: 2-4 (H), 2-3 (A)
Weather forecast: 21 degrees, predominantly sunny
Referee: Daniel Siebert (Berlin)
Live TV broadcaster: Sky Sport
A cracker of a semi-final at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium. The Bayer 04 U19 team entertain Bayern Munich on Saturday, 10 May (kick-off: 11:00 CEST/stadium opens: 10:00 CEST). In front of a home crowd, the team led by head coach Sergi Runge, who welcomes back an attacking player, is looking to build on the battling performances from the previous knockout games and "perform at the right moment." Tickets are available from the Bayer 04 online shop and the game will also be broadcast live on Sky.
Show moreBayer 04 have now gone 33 Bundesliga away games in succession without defeat and thereby equalled the record set by Bayern Munich: Jonathan Tah netted the equaliser at 2-2 in added time away to SC Freiburg on his 400th appearance for the Werkself. SCF took a 2-0 lead with a strike from Maximilian Eggestein (44') and a Piero Hincapie own goal (48') before Florian Wirtz pulled a goal back on 82 minutes.
Show moreWerkself-TV shows the highlights of Bayer 04's 2-2 draw at SC Freiburg on the 32nd matchday of the Bundesliga 2024/25...
Show moreThe Werkself are away to SC Freiburg on Bundesliga Matchday 32. The penultimate away game of the season is today Sunday, 4 May with a 17:30 CEST kick-off at the Europa Park Stadion. Read on for the latest information in today's matchday news.
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