Club Haberleri

The first two matchdays of the new Bundesliga season are done and it’s now time for the first international break of the 2024/25 campaign. While Romano Schmid and Marco Grüll are in UEFA Nations League action, Keke Topp is hoping to make his debut for Germany U21s.

Keven Schlotterbeck: “Heidenheim scored twice from two chances in the first half, while we were missing that bit of luck on our side. It’s tough to concede a penalty like that so early into the match. Having looked at the footage, it’s a mystery to me because I was just contesting a challenge. We then suffered too many losses of possession, but Heidenheim did well to hit us on the counter. We have to be critical of ourselves and analyse this defeat, in order to address the things that didn’t go well. After doing that, I’m certain we’ll be able to show a different side to ourselves after the international break.” 

Jeffrey Gouweleeuw: “Going behind early on, especially through yet another handball decision, made things tough. We tried to continue to move the ball up the pitch, but we were lacking precision. We also weren’t compact enough in defending Heidenheim’s counter-attacks – it simply wasn’t good enough. Everyone will need to show a reaction during the international break, as we need to show an improvement!”

Nediljko Labrović: “It feels awful to have conceded four times. We had several chances of our own in the first half, but we didn’t make the most of them. All our mistakes were then punished. We need to pick ourselves up now because there’s a lot of potential in our team, even if we didn’t manage to show that today.” 

Arne Maier: “We came up short in every area today. Even if the game started poorly with a penalty awarded against us, the scoreline at the end shouldn’t read 4-0. We made it far too easy for Heidenheim and were unable to pose any problems for them.”  

Jess Thorup, FC Augsburg head coach: “I’m disappointed, because we played poorly when not in possession, didn’t defend well in and around the box and barely created any chances for ourselves. During the first half, we had the feeling that we could still exert our control over the game, but then all of a sudden, it was 2-0. We then forgot how to do the basics. The penalty decision that resulted from a tackle had a decisive impact on the match, but I don’t want to discuss the refereeing today. It’s no excuse for the fact that we weren’t able to win our duels or execute the basics today.” 

Frank Schmid, 1. FC Heidenheim head coach: “We were nearly caught off guard by a dangerous free kick that hit the crossbar in the opening minutes. The penalty helped us find our way into the game and I was pleased that we managed to make it 2-0 before the break. Last season, we also took a 2-0 lead against Augsburg but ended up losing 5-2. That was something that we spoke about at half time and we learned from it. The third goal then put the game to bed.” 

Axel also emphasized having a bit more respect. “Oliver was dragged through the mud for months, every decision was negatively attached to him. That was too much,” Axel fumed. “The colleagues at Sky, the gentlemen [Lothar] Matthäus, [Jan Aage] Fjörtoft and so on: These are things that just don’t work like that. We need to have a little more respect overall.”

In what was his first Bundesliga away game with SC, head coach Julian Schuster named the same starting line-up that triumphed 3-1 against last season’s runners-up VfB Stuttgart last weekend. His counterpart at Bayern, Vincent Kompany, was making his coaching debut at home for the record champions and made just one change to his team. Joshua Kimmich dropped into the right-back slot and replaced Sacha Boey, with Mathys Tel coming into the side in his place.

The substitutes: Philipp, Hranáč, Berisha, Gendrey, Samassékou, Tubakovic, Micheler, Bruun Larsen, Nsoki.

The Red Bulls will face the recently promoted side in the Pokal’s second round | Match Date: October 29/30

The German Football Association made the draw for the second round of the DFB Cup on Sunday, with VfB set to welcome 1. FC Kaiserslautern to the MHP Arena.

András Schäfer will face his ‘favourite opponent’ in the Hungarian national jersey this week as he and his colleagues start their UEFA Nations League group A campaign against Germany, a regular opponent of the ‘Magyars’ at major tournaments in recent years. This will be followed up three days later, when the 1938 and 1954 World Cup runners-up face Bosnia, hoping to continue their run of four matches without defeat.

VfL Wolfsburg have loaned Manuel Braun to 3. Liga side Waldhof Mannheim for the rest of the 2024/25 season. The defender joined the Wolves’ academy six years ago and established himself as one of the best players in his age category. The 19-year-old was part of Ralph Hasenhüttl’s first-team squad over the summer.

The draw for the second round of the DFB-Pokal was carried out at the German Football Museum in Dortmund on Sunday afternoon. SV Werder have been pitted against SC Paderborn 07, with the second-division side hosting the tie on either 29th or 30th October.