The omens are good for VfB ahead of their clash with FC Augsburg, with the Bavarian Swabians being something of a favorite opponent for Stuttgart. However, the home side are also plagued by injury worries.
As is well known, Luca Jaquez had to pull out at short notice before Thursday evening’s 2-0 win over Feyenoord Rotterdam due to adductor problems and will also be unavailable on Sunday against FC Augsburg. The good news from VfB Stuttgart’s point of view, however, is that the injury is not structural in nature, the defender is traveling to the “Nati” and will continue to receive treatment in Switzerland.
Coach Sebastian Hoeneß, on the other hand, still has to worry about Deniz Undav and Jeff Chabot, who are suffering from minor injuries after the victory against the Dutch. Hoeneß warns, especially in the case of Undav, who only returned from injury a few weeks ago: “He has played much more than planned. He’s doing well, but we have to be careful there too.”
Despite the sobering results, the same applies to the opponents, as Hoeneß emphasizes: “Augsburg may be coming out of a difficult phase in terms of results, but they recently put up a great fight against Borussia Dortmund and will also pose difficult challenges for us.” Nevertheless, the clear strategy from Stuttgart’s point of view is: “We want to continue our home winning streak in the Bundesliga and go into the international break with a strong performance.”
The Swabians have won five consecutive league games in front of their home crowd, and Hoeneß has already celebrated seven victories in the German top flight against FCA alone. What’s more, since their promotion in 2020, VfB have won eight of their ten Bundesliga matches against Augsburg. That sounds a bit like a favorite opponent. But of course, such statistics need to be backed up with performance in order to stay at the top.
Rotation likely again
The intense schedule of the past few weeks has taken its toll, as Hoeneß emphasizes: “On Sunday, we will play our seventh game in 23 days. The past few weeks have been correspondingly intense. We want to bring everything that makes us strong to the pitch against Augsburg.” It is therefore quite possible that the coach will once again start the rotation machine.
