FC Augsburg Haberleri

“We want to show early on who is playing at home – there are three very important points on offer,” said FCA head coach Enrico Maaßen, who reported a “very good and intense week of training”. Last week, Augsburg were defeated 5-3 by the Bundesliga leaders FC Bayern Munich, but Maaßen expects a “completely different game” against the Schalke side, who have been undefeated since the winter break (17th place, 20 points).

Recently, S04 were able to equalise twice in the Revierderby against Borussia Dortmund (2-2), and Thomas Reis’s team haven’t conceded a single goal in the last three games away from home. “He has been able to instil a good team spirit; they are very solid and defend well,” said Maaßen in praise of his fellow coach, who was not in charge of Schalke in the reverse fixture earlier in the season that FCA won 3-2.

St. Gallen currently sit in third place in the Swiss Super League. Both sides completed their winter preparations in Algorfa, Spain, in January, and will now meet for a friendly. The match will kick off at 14:00 CET and will unfortunately have to take place without fans present for organisational reasons. The exact venue will be determined nearer the time.

FCA fall to 5-3 loss in Munich Defeat despite taking early lead through Berisha FC Augsburg...

Jeffrey Gouweleeuw: “Against Bayern, you can’t defend everything, but five goals conceded is obviously too many. We started the game really well and went into the lead, but then we conceded two annoying goals from set pieces. However we didn’t give up and the second half in particular was very positive, we can build on that.”

In the first half of the season, FCA recorded an impressive 1-0 home win over Bayern and also proved to be a tricky opposition for stretches of the 5-2 DFB-Pokal defeat. “We played really well in the two games against them and we’ve won our last four home games; that gives us a good feeling,” said the head coach, who watched Bayern’s 2-0 win over PSG on television.

This means that just matchdays 31 to 33 are yet to be published, with all matchday 34 games to be played on a Saturday afternoon at 15:30 CEST. FCA’s final game is away at Borussia Mönchengladbach.

Engels was also acknowledged as one of the best young players in the Bundesliga in January. The award, which fans and clubs can vote for, was won by Dortmund’s Karim Adeyemi. FCA’s midfielder is up against FC Bayern’s Matthijs de Ligt and Schalke’s Tom Krauß this month.

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.

Dion Beljo: “I’m over the moon to have scored my first goal for FCA. It was a typical goal for me, I enjoy scoring goals like that. I’ve been working hard every day to finally get going in this league, which is very different to where I played before. I feel very good here, though, and I’m happy that I could help the team with my goal. I don’t have any specific targets for myself in terms of goal numbers, but today was a good start.”

Immediately after the international break at the end of March, FCA will first travel to VfL Wolfsburg (Saturday 01/04 15:30 CEST), followed a week later by a home match against 1. FC Köln on Saturday (08/04 15:30 CEST). The away match at RB Leipzig will also be played on a Saturday (15/04 15:30 CEST), before the home game against VfB Stuttgart on Friday 21st April (20:30 CEST), which is the first of matchday 29.