1.
20:31
The ball rolls! The hosts clink glasses in red and white, Bayer wears black.
20:24
The match will be directed by referee Marco Fritz. Dominik Schaal and Marcel Pelgrim are assisting on the sidelines and Daniel Siebert is responsible for the video evidence.
20:12
Guest coach Xabi Alonso does not believe that the Augsburg game has changed due to the many winter arrivals. “Your style of play has remained the same: you play with a very high intensity and aggressiveness,” said the Spaniard, who is certain: “We know what will be important.”
20:03
Enrico Maassen sees his team facing a difficult task. “We’re playing against a team that has a high individual quality,” said the FCA coach. Nevertheless, the 38-year-old is optimistic. “We know what’s coming, but we firmly believe that we can beat Leverkusen,” said the home team coach. And the people of Fuggerstadt have already proven that they can do that. FCA won the first leg in Leverkusen 2-1.
19:50
A look at the line-ups: There is only one change for the hosts after the 1: 3 in Freiburg. Fredrik Jensen replaces the suspended Ermedin Demirović. Xabi Alonso makes three changes to the guests. Odilon Kossounou, Mitchel Bakker and Adam Hložek will start in place of Jonathan Tah, Florian Wirtz (both on the bench) and Nadiem Amiri (not in the squad).
19:43
A few weeks ago, the guests from Leverkusen were still in the middle of a relegation battle, but with a series of five wins in a row, the Rhinelanders have catapulted themselves into mid-table. A 0-2 draw against Borussia Dortmund ended the Werkself’s run for the time being, but Leverkusen are looking up again. Eight points are currently missing from the targeted international business, with a win Leverkusen could move up to eighth place.
19:35
After eight games in a row without a win, the Augsburgers were finally able to celebrate again after the 1-0 home win against Mönchengladbach. But the joy didn’t last long. FCA suffered a 3-1 defeat in Freiburg last weekend and are thus still stuck in the bottom of the table. The advantage over the relegation place is a full two points. And now the people of Fuggerstadt have to do it at home, where almost nothing has worked before. Only Schalke at the bottom have scored just as few points in front of their home crowd as FC Augsburg.
19:30
Hello and welcome to the Bundesliga on Friday evening! FC Augsburg and Bayer 04 Leverkusen open the 19th match day in the upper house. At 8:30 p.m. the ball rolls in the WWK Arena.