“We want to stay sixth”

VfL Wolfsburg go into their Bundesliga Matchday 33 encounter away to SC Freiburg on Friday (kick-off 20:30 CEST) in sixth place, one rung below their hosts. At his press conference before the game, head coach Niko Kovac spoke about…

… personnel: “We had 18 outfield players and three goalkeepers in training today. Aside from the absentees that were already known about, everyone is healthy.”

… who the favourites are: “We’ve all played in Freiburg many times. This will be my first time in the new stadium but I’m assuming the atmosphere will be good there too. We’re certainly not the favourites going into the game; we’ll have to really push ourselves and we’ll need a bit of luck to make sure the match goes our way. Having said that, we’re going there with a positive feeling. We’ve played a lot of good games in the last few weeks. That’s what we want to do tomorrow in Freiburg as well.”

… VfL’s 6-0 win in the reverse fixture: “That game took place at the start of January and it was the first one after the long break for the World Cup. A lot has happened since then. Even just in terms of tactics a few things are different for both teams, so you can’t compare the two games. It’ll be a completely new game, there’s not a lot you can take into it from the reverse fixture.”

… the chances of European qualification: “We want to play in Europe. That’s our objective and we’re not deviating from it. We’re in sixth place for the first time this season and we want to stay there, even if it’ll be anything but easy to do so. Now we’ve got a really tough away game to play because it’s no accident that Freiburg are up there.”