For three years now, SK Dynamo Ceske Budejovice – as the club is called in the national language – has once again been a permanent fixture in the Czech first division. After relegation in the 2012/13 season, the club had great difficulty returning to the top flight. Although they managed direct promotion, they were relegated again in the 2014/15 season and then spent four years in the second division.

After the World Cup in Qatar and the unusually long winter break that came with it, the Wolves will finally be back in action this coming Saturday, 21 January (kick-off 15:30 CET). Head coach Niko Kovac’s men are at home to SC Freiburg at the Volkswagen Arena as part of Bundesliga Matchday 16 as they look to hone in on a European spot.

“It’s difficult and sad, because as players you want to go to the World Cup, but we have this schedule where we have to play for our club and do our best. We are fighting a lot for player welfare because the schedule is crazy,” said the Blues defender.

Boris Rupert reporting

Scally takes part in full training as focus turns to Frankfurt Despite the announcement that captain...

SV Werder Bremen will start the week of training during the international break on Tuesday (21/3). Ole Werner and his coaching team will be without six players, who are away on international duty, but other Werder players will be returning to training.

The DFB Sports Court has requested suspensions for VfL head coach Thomas Reis as well as midfielder Konstantinos Stafylidis in single-judge proceedings. Both were punished with a red card in the last points match at SC Freiburg.

FCA head coach Enrico Maaßen made three changes to the team which started last weekend’s 2-0 defeat at Hertha Berlin, in the form of Ruben Vargas, Mads Pedersen and Dion Beljo. Mergim Berisha, who was unable to train fully over the week due to muscular issues, was named on the bench, whilst Fredrik Jensen was out of the squad with a minor injury.

In a recent interview with Az, former Bayern player Sammy Kuffour expressed his admiration for not only Mane the footballer, but Mane the man. He also isn’t too worried by some of the criticism the Senegalese attacker has received, knowing that he’s the type of player that is very self-aware and knows what’s expected of him. He doesn’t need the external reminders of when he’s not scoring goals and converting chances that he should be.

Sandro Schwarz’s side started in a 3-5-2 formation on matchday 20, with Márton Dárdai starting in the back three alongside Marc Kempf and Filip Uremović. Marvin Plattenhardt and Marco Richter played as wing-backs, with a midfield three of Tolga Ciğerci, Suat Serdar and Lucas Tousart. Florian Niederlechner and Jessic Ngankam started upfront. Ciğerci made his first start of the season having re-joined the club, while Dárdai made his first start since August. Pascal Klemens also celebrated a first, with the 17-year-old making the first team squad for the first time. Gladbach had a former Herthaner in their starting eleven in the shape of Lucas Netz, who replaced Ramy Bensebaini who missed out with illness.