It’s a while since the Wolves last played a Bundesliga game at the Max-Morlock-Stadion in Nuremberg: 23 November 2013, to be precise. On that occasion the two sides played out a 1-1 draw. Interestingly, the goalscorer for Nürnberg was current VfL striker Daniel Ginczek, who equalised after Maximilian Arnold had put the Green-Whites in front. The duo will be on the same team when the two sides do battle on Matchday 15. Could that be a good omen? One thing’s for sure: VfL head coach Bruno Labbadia is not expecting any gifts from FCN on Friday, but the 52-year-old is also feeling confident ahead of the game. At Thursday morning’s press conference, Labbadia spoke about…
…the personnel situation: “We had hoped it would be a little clearer than it is at the moment. We thought that Jerome Roussillon, Elvis Rexhbecaj and Admir Mehmedi would be able to train fully again yesterday after their recent knocks but only Jerome completed the session. The other two had to have tests before training, so we don’t really know yet whether they’ll be available.”
…the opposition: “Nürnberg have a big disparity between their home and away record. They’ve collected nine of their 11 points in front of their own fans. As well as that, 25 of the 33 goals they’ve conceded have come away from home. That shows they have two sides. They achieved promotion in a convincing manner, they’ve pretty much kept that squad together and they rely on their collective spirit. They’ll certainly give everything at home and we’re prepared for that. We’ll have to work hard.”
…his expectations: “They’ve played very defensively recently, certainly against FC Bayern. What we’ve seen is that they make the space very tight and then play on the counter. We need to adjust to that and make sure that when we have possession, we do something with it. That’s something I like, though. The main question for us will be what we do with the ball. We need to have a lot of movement in our game and show good positional play.”
