Hjulmand ahead of #B04SGE: ‘I feel a great energy in the team’

"I can hardly wait to get started tomorrow. Of course. we want to win the game and I'm looking forward to a full stadium with a good atmosphere in front of our fans," said Kasper Hjulmand at the start of the press conference on Thursday afternoon. The stadium will be sold out tomorrow with 30,210 spectators. 3,000 supporters are expected from Frankfurt.

Hjulmand: "feel the energy"

Shortly before the press conference, the Dane had conducted his second training session at Bayer 04, which was also the final session ahead of tomorrow's clash. Hjulmand was able to call on the entire squad for the first time after not all the international players returned the day before. Talking about his impressions of the final training session, he said: "Of course, it's all still very new, but I can feel a lot of energy. It's a very competitive team with a lot of quality and high potential. The competition is very high. We have a lot of strong leaders and experienced players with leadership qualities. That's very important." In his best English, he summarised: "Leadership is also a team sport."

The fact the Dane has only had two training sessions in preparation for the Frankfurt game does not worry him. "I don't see any disadvantage in that. Over the last few days, I've also watched a lot of videos and held talks to gather as much information as possible. I've had a lot of help from all sides. We will now primarily learn from the games and communication with each other. I've already said that not everything can work perfectly straight away. But I'm very confident," said Hjulmand, who emphasised: "We have six games in the next three weeks, we need all players and the highest quality. A football team is not just eleven players."

Almost all players are available for tomorrow's clash. Only Martin Terrier, Jeanuel Belocian and Jonas Hofmann are unavailable. On Lucas Vázquez , Hjulmand said: "We'll have to see how much time he gets. He's a great player with a lot of experience."

Hjulmand: eintracht have "flexible style of play"

A strong opponent awaits the Dane in his first game in the dugout at Bayer 04. Eintracht Frankfurt, unbeaten in the last eight Bundesliga games, are currently second in the table. They started the season with a 4-1 win against Werder Bremen, followed by a 3-1 win at TSG Hoffenheim on matchday 2. Prior to that, the Eagles also comfortably mastered their challenge in the first round of the DFB Pokal with a 5-0 victory at Oberliga club FV Engers 07.

Hjulmand said of Eintracht: "I have great respect for Frankfurt and for Dino (Dino Toppmöller, Eintracht head coach, ed.). Frankfurt have developed really well. They have a flexible style of play and are a very good team."

friday match live on Sky and WOW

Friday games in the Bundesliga are available on Sky and its streaming service WOW this season. Fans can also follow the game against Frankfurt as usual on Werkself Radio and the Bayer 04 live text updates. Both the radio coverage and live text updates are available at bayer04.de and on the Bayer 04 app.

important travel information

Due to construction work, S-Bahn trains will stop running between Leverkusen Mitte station and Cologne and Düsseldorf from around 20:00 CEST. A rail replacement service has been organised, but its capacity is significantly lower than the trains. Alternative options by train after the match are the RE1 at 22:55 CEST in the direction of Cologne and the RE5 at 22:45 CEST in the direction of Düsseldorf or the RE1 at 23:04 CEST. There are also regional trains from Leverkusen-Manfort station in the direction of Cologne, including the RB48 at 22.49 CEST. Further information on travelling by train can be found on the Deutsche Bahn app.