The 2024-25 2. Bundesliga season starts on Friday evening. Floodlights, 50,000 in Müngersdorf and Hamburger SV in town. The game has all the makings of a classic to kick-off the new campaign.
Form
1. FC Köln: FC enjoyed a near perfect pre-season from the results point of view. Seven games, six wins and three impressive performances against VV St. Truiden, Swansea City and Udinese. There was only one draw against Viktoria Köln.
Hamburger SV: Steffen Baumgart was able to go through his first pre-season as HSV coach since taking over earlier this year. They won their first four friendlies, including a stand-out 4:2 comeback win against FC Nantes. HSV then lost to Cardiff City (3:0), before rounding off their pre-season preparation with a 0:0 draw against Aris Limassol.
Fitness update
1. FC Köln: Luca Waldschmidt and Rasmus Carstensen are both available for Friday’s fixture. The same can’t be said of Max Finkgräfe, Florian Kainz and Jacob Christensen, sadly. All three are long-term absentees.
Hamburger SV: Robert Glatzel and Matheo Raab will not feature in the season opener. The forward is in rehab training and Raab is recovering from a lung infection. Daniel Heuer Fernandes will replace Raab in goal. Davie Selke could be an option for the squad, though Steffen Baumgart wants to speak with the former FC forward as to what extent he can feature.
The coaches have had their say
Gerhard Struber: “I think that we’ll see a game with an incredibly high intensity. We need to be clear in what we do and stay lively. When you play against a team that wants to get promoted, then it’s a good test to see where you stand straight away. Now we want to know where we stand and go all in. We will give everything. We’ve built up a certain self-confidence in pre-season and now it’s about doing everything to bring that into the league.”
Steffen Baumgart: “It’s obviously an interesting game to be played on Matchday 1, but I’m looking forward to it. I had a great time in Köln, however now my focus is only on HSV and that’s my motto ahead of this game. Nevertheless, FC are a good team and belong near the top of the table. They have an aggressive style of play, press high up the pitch and look to force mistakes out of their opponents. That worked really well for them in pre-season, but we’re still travelling there to win.”
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