“An atmosphere like this inspires me”

Magdeburg has a very exciting, attractive and, in a positive sense, an extreme style of play. They are a team that passes the ball a lot and makes the game very wide. At the same time, they are brave and play from the back. They press against the ball one-on-one across the entire pitch. This can create very spectacular games. Magdeburg stands alone with their style of play, which, however, also involves a certain amount of risk – both with and against the ball. It will be a very exciting and very special football game. We don’t have to change our own style of play, but we have to adapt it accordingly. I have no explanation as to why the results at Magdeburg haven’t come together yet. Nevertheless, they won their last home game against Köln. Overall, 1. FC Magdeburg has a very good team.

Magdeburg is a sports city, so the people there are very enthusiastic. I’m looking forward to Magdeburg – a great stadium and great fans. It gets very loud. Magdeburg is already one of the most atmospheric away games of the year. Such an atmosphere inspires me. I hope that I can pass on my excitement to my players.

Magdeburg is the favourite. We are coming from a phase that was not so exciting in terms of results. We are also missing players in central midfield and central defence who have been very instrumental so far this season. Nevertheless, I say that we – similar to Magdeburg – have a style of play that is not so typical for this 2nd league. This means we are always in a position to pose big problems for our opponents. We want to show that again in Magdeburg – regardless of whether we are the favourites or not. We want to score points in Magdeburg – threefold. Overall, Magdeburg remains a clear favourite for promotion for me. Because they have consolidated their game idea over several years. They know how to deal with phases during the season when things don’t go well. That’s why we’re facing a very solid team on Sunday.

The win against Schalke was very good. Already in Braunschweig people were encouragingly committed to Schalke. The team and the stadium showed it together last Sunday. The support away from home has also been outstanding throughout the season. I’m looking forward to the away game in Magdeburg with our fans.

Unfortunately, I only saw Matze for two days of training, but of course I saw him play before that. He has shown time and again over the years that he is one of the top third of right-backs in the second division when he is fit. We felt the contract extension was a good sign so he could continue to focus on his full recovery. We look forward to when he can fulfill his sporting role again. In addition, with the last two extensions of Marcel Schuhen and now Matthias Bader, we have shown that we all want structure and identification to be very important. We want to continue to maintain the connection to the city and the club in the team. Matze is an important building block for this.