The season is drawing to a close. “We still have two more really difficult challenges, the next one awaits us in Augsburg,” said BVB coach Edin Terzic prior to the game away to the Bavarian Swabians. Kick-off against FCA is at 17:30 CET on Sunday.

Like in previous weeks, Edin Terzic has enjoyed a full training ground in preparation for the match in Augsburg. However, the coach must still do without Jude Bellingham. The midfielder has not trained with his team-mates since the match against Mönchengladbach last weekend. “His knee is causing him problems, which have worsened since the end of the game. There is still a big question mark over his involvement,” explained the coach on Thursday. Terzic could change his system in Bellingham’s absence – or line up with Marco Reus, Gio Reyna or Salih Özcan, “who have very often played in this position. Raphael Guerreiro has also played there in the second half of the season.”

Seven goals in the reverse fixture

In the last meeting between the two teams, Bellingham opened the scoring at 1-0 and Reyna made it 4-3. “Augsburg are a team that battles for every point until the end. We saw that here when we led three times and still had cause for concern until the end when we wrapped up the points,” said Terzic, recalling a game that only took place at the end of January.

FCA, who currently occupy 13th position in the table, have managed to pick up a number of their 34 points against teams in the top third of the table. Augsburg have won against Union Berlin, Bayer Leverkusen and Bayern Munich. They held a 3-0 lead for a long time against Leipzig before the match ended in a draw. “Those are the games that have suited them very well this season. They always try to draw the opponent into challenges. They have also created an atmosphere in the stadium and on the bench that can become very heated. We must prepare ourselves for that,” said Terzic, who has looked at the opposition closely.

Reunion with Enrico Maaßen

His opposite number in the dugout will be Enrico Maaßen – a familiar face who was in charge of Dortmund’s U23s between 2020 and 2022. “We regularly communicated. I often watched training sessions. We spoke a lot about football. I value Enno highly,” said Terzic. “I am delighted about his career and that he’s made it into the Bundesliga. That said, he will give everything to pick up a home win with his team. And we will give everything to pick up an away win.”

These three points would draw BVB a step closer to their big objective at the end of the season. “It hasn’t been the case for a long time that we’ve still had so much to play for and can still achieve the very biggest objective heading into Matchday 33. I’m delighted to see many boys and girls in BVB shirts and flags hanging up in the front gardens in Dortmund again,” explained the BVB coach. “We wanted people to hardly be able to wait to see us play again. We’ve succeeded with that in the last home games in particular, but that was only a partial goal. The big objective now awaits us in eight days.”
Christina Reinke

BVB TV by 1&1: The press conference prior to the game against Augsburg