'We want to move up the table'

"If possible, we want to take all three points in Mönchengladbach," said the Bayer 04 head coach at the pre-match press conference ahead of the game against the team lying in fifth place with a five-point advantage over his team. The fact that Borussia, with a worse goal difference (12-12), are seven places above the Werkself (15 – 13) rankles with the 45-year-old: "I saw them at home against Hannover three weeks ago. They could have ended up losing that game." He was referring to a shot from Hannover's Martin Harnick in the closing stages of the game that hit the bar and the penalty converted by Mönchengladbach in added time to give them a 2-1 win.

ARÁNGUIZ Set to return

In terms of outcomes, Heiko Herrlich would gladly swap places with the Foals. "We have scored some comfortable victories but we've also unnecessarily dropped a few points," said our head coach. While the gap to Gladbach and the top end of the league would be eight points in the event of defeat, a victory for the Black and Reds would reduce the gap to just two points. The aim is therefore very clear: "We want to move up the table and obviously we need to win to achieve that."

All the better that Herrlich and his fellow coaches have almost a full squad available ahead of this tough challenge. This week saw the whole squad train together for the first time this term after the return from injury of Tin Jedvaj (shin) and Charles Aránguiz (calf). "Charles has come through the sessions very well. We'll wait until the final pre-match training session and then decide how we'll line up tomorrow. We're thinking about a number of options."

2,100 Werkself fans are expected to make the trip to the Borussia Park stadium.