Kovac before the Augsburg match: “Then it's tough to beat us” | OneFootball

BVB and FCA's most recent outings could not have gone more differently: while the Black & Yellows enjoyed an emotional and ultimately jubilant evening in the cup on Tuesday, with a successful penalty shootout thriller in Frankfurt, the Red, Green and Whites were left with their heads hanging low some 280 kilometres away. Coach Sandro Wagner's team suffered a bitter 1-0 defeat at home against second-tier side VfL Bochum, ending any aspirations of a cup run.

The season has not been going according to plan for Borussia's upcoming opponents, who have picked up just seven points from eight games (match facts). In the Bundesliga, they recently suffered a 6-0 defeat at home to Leipzig and previously drew 1-1 in Cologne. “I’m not overlooking the situation they're in,” said Niko Kovac at the press conference ahead of the clash with Augsburg. The BVB head coach sees that FCA are clearly not in a great place at the moment, “but that doesn’t mean it will be easy for us,” he said.

Niko Kovac: “Let everyone play”

Kovac's words of warning become even clearer when looking at last season: Borussia lost both matches against Augsburg in the 2024/25 season (1-0, 2-1). What's more, although FCA played as recently as BVB, they did not have to go the full 120 minutes on Tuesday. To succeed on Friday, “we have to be 120% focused,” explained Kovac, repeating what he emphasises week after week: “We’re only looking at ourselves.”

The BVB coach also took a look at his squad on Thursday after the exhausting two hours in Frankfurt: “We came through very well,” said Kovac. The only player to come out of the game injured was Niklas Süle, who has problems with a toe. “Everyone else is fully fit.” Ramy Bensebaini, who was not in the squad against Frankfurt due to back problems, was already back in training on Thursday. Emre Can and Julien Duranville also completed parts of the session, but it is still too early for them to play on Friday.

The squad that will take to the pitch in Augsburg is therefore almost complete – giving Kovac another opportunity to rotate his players. That’s necessary, “if you want to maintain the intensity you’ve implemented — then you have to let everyone play,” explained the BVB coach, whose team could move ahead of Leipzig (19 points) and Stuttgart (18) with a win and climb to second place in the table with 20 points.

Kovac feels good about the frequent changes in recent weeks: “We have a great team, I trust every single player.” When he has all his players available – and the coach has that against Augsburg, with a few exceptions – “then it’s difficult to beat us.” It looks like it will be a difficult evening for FCA on Friday evening, meaning BVB fans will have high hopes of seeing the same scenes at the final whistle as they did on Tuesday: Borssia players celebrating.