Hertha BSC vs. FC Augsburg preview: Schwarz’s side are desperate for anything
At the Olympiastadion, Hertha must find a way to get a result against a hard-nosed Augsburg team in their challenging fight to stay in the league.
Hertha BSC
After a huge 4-1 home win against Gladbach on Matchday 20, Hertha expectedly fell right back down to earth during their 4-1 loss to Dortmund last weekend. At 17th in the table, Hertha have a mountain to climb to save themselves once again.
To make matters worse, it looks like Florian Niederlechner won’t play on Saturday due to a clause in his new contract. Hertha really need Dodi Lukebakio’s quality to shine through on Matchday 22 for the 3rd-worst scoring club in the league.
The under-fire Sandro Schwarz said, "It's an important game, no question. - We had to consider how we can show our identity and style of play again. It is also important that the boys feel comfortable with that.”
Team News
Chidera Ejuke, Kelian Nsona and Wilfried Kanga have all been ruled out for Matchday 22. Filip Uremovic and Suat Serdar are questionable after training individually this week, but Stevan Jovetic was seen back in team training and is expected to be in the squad.
FC Augsburg
Enrico Maaßen is working wonders with Augsburg who were pegged to be at the bottom of the table before the season began. Augsburg have scraped out narrow results against Gladbach, Leverkusen and Hoffenheim to start the new year and are slowly working their way up the table.
At 13th place in the league, 24 points is pretty impressive for a side that signed eight more players in the winter window. Mergim Berisha has been very dependable up front and summer signing Ermedin Demirovic is showing his promise right alongside him.
In his press conference, Maaßen stated, "(Hertha) play very consistently, with high pressing and many chances to score. Hertha could have won in Dortmund as well. The most important game is always the next one. We will need our best performance and we absolutely want to score."
Team News
Andre Hahn, Tobias Strobl, Reece Oxford and Irvin Cardona join Elvis Rexhbecaj and Felix Uduokhai as unavailable for the contest.