Korkut: 'Our team’s not a jot worse'

It's almost certain the Werkself will face a tough game in Sinsheim on Saturday afternoon at 15.30 CET. TSG Hoffenheim have only lost twice in 24 games this season and no opponent has taken all three points at the Rhein Neckar Arena this term. Bayer 04 can rely on two factors ahead of this away game: Firstly, the impressive and confidence-boosting appearance in the Champions League on Wednesday at Atlético Madrid and secondly our record at TSG to date. The eight meetings in Sinsheim have produced six wins for Leverkusen and two draws.

Of course, nobody in Black and Red would have any objection to that statistic remaining valid after Saturday's game. The Werkself certainly enjoy great respect from the opponents. "Leverkusen are a very, very good team who aren't in the position they imagined in the league. However, Bayer 04 are always capable of producing a top performance," said Hoffenheim's coach Julian Nagelsmann.

That is exactly what Tayfun Korkut has in mind. "We're up against an opponent who’ve had a very, very good season. Hoffenheim have a lot of very talented players but that applies to us too. We don't need to hide, our team’s not a jot worse. We want to be courageous and compete on equal terms," said the Bayer 04 head coach at the pre-match press conference in the media centre at the BayArena, broadcast live on bayer04.de and Facebook.

Maintain solidity

Korkut was very pleased to see his team's performance in the Champions League at Atletico Madrid. "You could see our team, in comparison to the first game against Bremen, has taken in certain approaches to our game and put a lot into practice. Every individual player had his positive moments on the pitch but above all we functioned as a group. It's important not to lose solidity and continue to resolutely follow our way forward," declared the 42-year-old coach who was unable to say much about his line-up for Saturday: "I'll have to see what happens in training afterwards, how it looks with the players who've been missing recently and who might be in a position to give it a go."

In response to questions from the assembled journalists, Korkut gave special praise to Kevin Volland and Roberto Hilbert. "Kevin has shown in the last two games how important he can be for us. Hopefully carries on like that. He's a tricky proposition for opponents," said Korkut who also announced Volland will be the first choice penalty taker for Bayer 04 from now on. The impressive performance of stalwart Roberto Hilbert in Madrid did not particularly surprise the coach: "I didn't speak to him much beforehand but I was convinced he would perform even though he hasn't played much before."

Werkself attracts fans

At Hoffenheim there have been increasing comments recently about the lack of response from spectators at their home games with the twelve matches so far this season only seeing one full house against Borussia Dortmund. That's changed now: The stadium in Sinsheim is completely sold out for the visit of the Werkself with some 1,000 Bayer 04 fans travelling to support the team.