While the majority of the Werkself squad have been working at Bismarckstraße over the past two weeks, several players have been away with their international teams. All have returned fit and well with the exception of Edmond Tapsoba: Charles Aránguiz and Piero Hincapie, who picked up important points in the South American World Cup qualifiers, are, according to Gerardo Seoane, on board for Sunday as is Odilon Kossounou (back from the Africa Cup of Nations).
Eddy Tapsoba will definitely miss the big match in Dortmund. The Burkina Faso international will play in the third-place play-off in the Africa Cup of Nations on Saturday. Chances of making the squad for Daley Sinkgraven, Julian Baumgartlinger and Exequiel Palacios, who is back on track after his back problems, are not very good. The trio have completed parts of full training in the past few days but are still working on their own as well.
Winter signing Sardar Azmoun, who arrived in Leverkusen yesterday, will need "one or two more days training" before his first appearance, according to Seoane at Friday afternoon's pre-match press conference. The centre forward signed from Zenit St Petersburg is currently undergoing performance checks at the Werkstatt in the BayArena.
bvb trio could miss out
Two of the top three strikers in the Bundesliga could face each other on Sunday in Werkself player Patrik Schick and Dortmund's Erling Haaland. However, as BVB head coach Marco Rose announced on Friday, the Norway international is not yet back in full training and the same applies to the two Germany internationals Mats Hummels and Emre Can. The possibility of the trio playing against the Werkself is "more than tight."
Asked about the absence of Haaland, Seoane said: “It definitely wouldn't be to our disadvantage. He's always incredibly dangerous and he knows where the goal is." The personnel issue does not have a direct influence on preparations for the whole team but rather for individual – primarily defensive – players.
"certain similarities"
The two opposing teams are second and third in the Bundesliga table. However, the gap to the Werkself is eight points. "Dortmund were a bit more consistent than us in the first half of the season," said Seoane. "Therefore, our target has to be to continually improve in order to close the gap over the long term." The 43-year-old coach sees parallels with his own team in the BVB style of play: "They like going forwards and love attacking football – just like we do."
Both teams clearly demonstrated their attacking qualities when the two teams last met at the BayArena in the middle of September last year: Seven goals were scored – the Werkself ended up with a narrow 4-3 defeat in the end. Seoane on that match: "The first game was an exciting clash: We led three times but were left empty-handed in the end. Of course, we all want to see a similar game again this time – but with a positive result for us."
