FC face Darmstadt after international break

1. FC Köln take on SV Darmstadt 98 on Friday evening at the Merck-Stadion am Böllenfalltor. Here is all you need to know ahead of the game.

The coaches have their say

Florian Kohfeldt: “1. FC Köln is the most difficult challenge in the league. They have an incredible amount of attacking quality in their squad. They want to play deep very quickly and use their pace and individual quality going forward. For us, it will be extremely difficult to find a good balance. We need a good mix of real attention when it comes to defending and can’t forget to look at our own attacking play as well so that Köln can’t get started. Köln is definitely a tough challenge.”

Gerhard Struber: “Darmstadt is a team that have real quality and have shown that in the past games. That has been clear with the new coach, as well as wanting to control the game and the ball more with good combination play.”

Injury update

SV Darmstadt 98: Fabian Holland, Paul Will, Matthias Bader and Christoph Zimmermann will miss the game on Friday evening. Otherwise, all other players are at Florian Kohfeldt’s disposal.

1. FC Köln: Dejan Ljubicic, Mark Uth and Luca Kilian remain absent due to their injury problems, although it looks likely that Uth will be able to feature for the under-21s. All other players returned fit from international duty and are available for Gerhard Struber.