1. FC Köln welcome 1. FC Magdeburg to the RheinEnergieSTADION on Saturday evening, with kick-off at 20:30 CEST. Head coach, Gerhard Struber and Head of Football, Thomas Kessler answered the gathered media’s questions at the pre-match press conference.
Gerhard Struber spoke about…
…the players’ fitness: “At the moment, it’s good. The internationals came back from the injury-free. Florian Kainz and Luca Kilian are back on the pitch training individually. Mark Uth is more stable and is working away. But we have to be careful and make sure that we don’t suffer a setback with them. Timo Hübers will return to the starting line-up, he’s an important player for us.”
…the opposition: “We have to be consequent when it comes to defending. Magdeburg is an opponent that will test us a lot. We have to be alert, win the ball and want to cause Magdeburg problems. Now, we’re heading into the game following the international break and want to pick up where we left off against Schalke. It’s about finding a match plan that will help us to be successful.”
…the fight for places: “Linton Maina has played really well but Luca Waldschmidt is also a very good option. Linton and Dejan Ljubicic have developed well and, for that reason, it’s always a battle for positions.”
…the highlight game on Friday evening: “Both teams are doing well in the table, both are ambitious. It’ll be a good game for the fans. Our aim is clear: we want to keep the three points here. We don’t have any doubts about what are lads can do and what potential they have – and when we have the quality, then scoring goals is the consequence of that.”
Thomas Kessler spoke about…
…the development and the atmosphere: “We want to get points on the board and, week for week, we’ll see where we are. On Saturday night, we have a highlight game with a special atmosphere. We’ll see how are players get on. The lads will give it their all and we want to take a step forward as a club.”
