Maaßen: “We want to get three points at home”

Home game against newly-promoted Darmstadt

FC Augsburg want to pick up some more points in the league when they play SV Darmstadt 98 at home on Saturday afternoon (15:30 CEST). FCA will once again be able to count on their fans to push them towards victory.

The home end is completely sold out ahead of clash between the 14th and 15th placed sides, with around 1,500 fans expected to travel from Darmstadt. Enrico Maaßen was looking forward to playing in front of a full house (“It’ll give us a boost”) and said, “We want to get three points at home. We’ll give it everything we’ve got and bring the passion from the stands onto the pitch.” The 39-year-old is also backing FCA to “finally” keep a clean sheet this season and be defensively stable.

Although FCA are unbeaten at home, they are still having trouble on the road. They fell to a 2-0 defeat away to Freiburg last week. “We talked about the game, we definitely could’ve gotten something from it,” explained Maaßen, who stressed the importance of keeping the ball in training this week. Augsburg should get their second home win in a row if they play with the necessary grit and determination against the newly-promoted side. “We want to show from the very beginning that we want to win,” said FCA’s head coach.

Darmstadt only a point behind FCA

Darmstadt lie exactly one point behind Augsburg in the Bundesliga standings after an impressive 4-2 victory over Werder Bremen last Sunday – the first win of the new season for Torsten Lieberknecht’s side. “Darmstadt play a lot of long balls forward. They’ve been involved in a lot of high scoring games, scoring lots of goals, but shipping a few, too,” said Maaßen, who sees a lot of “chances and risks” for his own side in light of this.

New arrivals Japhet Tanganga and Mayasa Okugawa will miss Saturday’s game alongside the suspended Arne Engels. The 27-year-old Japanese international was back in full training this week, but it’s too early for him to play against Darmstadt.