It’s been a pretty special day in South Tyrol. Because: This Thursday, things went a bit...

FC Managing Director, Christian Keller said: “We are really pleased that we could tie down Leart so early, convincing him of what we are doing here and that he’ll be playing for FC next season. Leart has been playing at a consistently high level in the past few years in 2. Bundesliga and has a lot of quality when on the ball. When he continues to develop his game in a defensive sense, then Leart will be someone who will do our team a lot of good.”

Bastian Oczipka had worn the Royal Blue jersey 74 times before Sunday’s game against Eintracht Frankfurt and had played on the left side of Schalke’s defence on each of those 74 occasions. The plan was for him to take up his usual position for his 75th appearance for S04 but after Weston McKennie picked up an early injury, Oczipka joined Ozan Kabak in the centre of defence.

… the transfer coming about at short notice: “The first contact came last week and we met on Wednesday. We got along straight away and came to an agreement relatively quickly.”

“Bayern have too many good players. It’s the same with (Noussair) Mazraoui or (Matthijs) De Ligt. Bayern has a lot of national players in the team and is generally a great club,” Pimenta told Sport1. “(It is) frustrating for professionals when they are not allowed to play. It’s a big change after joining Bayern, but I’m sure their time will come soon because they are top players.”

Trio return

This run of wins has catapulted the Blue-Whites from 18th place out of the relegation zone. SC will now be taking on the fifteenth-placed team in the Bundesliga on matchday 21, and Streich expects “a big fight” ahead of them – with the DFB-Pokal quarter-final at the beginning of March 2022 still fresh in the memory. “There will be lots of long balls from their goalkeeper Manuel Riemann towards Philipp Hofmann, one of the best headers of the ball in the Bundesliga. Then there will be second balls and it is about being assertive here.”

Sandro Schwarz made one change to the team that started the home game against Leverkusen last weekend, with Jean-Paul Böetius starting in the place of Suat Serdar, who missed out through illness. Davie Selke also missed out through illness, while the game came too early for Tjark Ernst, who had been working individually from the start of the week. As a result, Robert Kwasigroch was on the Hertha bench for the first time this season. Stevan Jovetić returned to the squad after a two game absence.

Directions and parking Train: There is no explicit shuttle transfer from Frankfurt Central Station (Hauptbahnhof). From the...

Christo with a record number of goals in 2022 | 11 games in a row without defeat | Szoboszlai amongst Europe’s best providers | Gvardiol with a flawless challenge success rate