Teams | December 8, 2013 at 02:18 PM
Familiar opponents on Sunday
Familiar opponents on Sunday
Two newly-promoted sides go head to head in Braunschweig on Sunday.
Berlin - Jos Luhukay and his Hertha BSC side make the short trip up the Autobahn to Braunschweig on Sunday (08.12.13, 5.30 pm), where they will once again lock horns with fellow newly-promoted side Eintracht Braunschweig on Bundesliga matchday 15. The home side of course know all about the capital city side from their duels last season as both clubs won promotion. It the first game last term the sides drew 1-1 in Braunschweig, before Hertha beat them 3-0 at the Olympic stadium later in the season. The record books show Hertha with their noses slightly ahead after having won 10, drawn 10 and lost 8 of the 28 games between the two teams thus far.
Around 2,400 Hertha fans will attend the game at the Eintracht Stadion which is a complete sell out. The club are advising fans without tickets not to travel. Luhukay is without the services of Alexander Baumjohann, Sebastian Langkamp, Änis Ben-Hatira and second string keeper Sascha Burchert on Sunday. At the pre-match press conference Luhukay would not reveal who would play alongside skipper Fabian lustenberger at the heart of his defence. The Dutchman has enough options, with John Anthony Brooks, Christoph Janker and Hajime Hosogai all waiting in the wings. The latter did a good job against Augsburg recently. Luhukay: „We of course know Braunschweig from last season. It will be a tough battle like the ones last term as we both won promotion.“ He added: „Eintracht put maximum effort into their home games with everyone prepared to run for each other. They will have the home crowd behind them and really need all three points.“
Kraft expects defensive hosts – Lieberknecht predicts attacking visitors
Braunschweig are currently bottom of the Bundesliga table. Not so Hertha who are sitting pretty in seventh place. Luhukay reflected on his side's last away trip in Hoffenheim and told the gathered media in Berlin: „It was a good away performance in Hoffenheim during which we scored thre goals, while creating a number of other good chances. That day our reward was three points.“ The Berlin boss was also happy with his side's performance against FC Augsburg, even though the 0-0 result was not satisfactory. Luhukay: „Augsburg massed their defence for the whole game. Despite that fact, we still now. We expect to take on a team who like Augsburg will park their team bus in front of their goal, which makes it tough for us to create chances while keeping them at bay at the same time.
„On a good day we can match them“, says Braunschweig coach Torsten Lieberknecht before Sunday's clash. He says the reason that Hertha are eleven places above his team is because of the quality and experience the Berliners had last season and the better financial resources in the capital city. Lieberknecht said his team matched Hertha during the first meeting last season which ended 1-1. He than admitted that it was different as Hertha beat them 3-0 at the Olympic stadium in the second game. Eintracht are without key duo Marco Caligiuri and Kevin Reichel for the visit of Hertha: „Those injries have forced a rethink in my selection“, admitted Lieberknecht before looking ahead to Sunday and adding: „The points at stake are crucial to us, especially when you look at the other fixtures this weekend.“ Sunday's game is nothing special for Eintracht's Karim Bellarabi, even though he was born in Berlin. He said: „I still have lots of friends there and when I was growing up I used to find Hertha cool.“
Possible line ups:
Eintracht Braunschweig: Davari - Elabdellaoui, Bicakcic, Dogan, Perthel - Kratz, Vrancic, Theuerkauf - Bellarabi, Boland - Kumbela
Hertha BSC: Kraft - Pekarik, Brooks, Lustenberger, van den Bergh - Cigerci, Hosogai - Allagui/Ndjeng, Skjelbred, Schulz - Ramos
Around 2,400 Hertha fans will attend the game at the Eintracht Stadion which is a complete sell out. The club are advising fans without tickets not to travel. Luhukay is without the services of Alexander Baumjohann, Sebastian Langkamp, Änis Ben-Hatira and second string keeper Sascha Burchert on Sunday. At the pre-match press conference Luhukay would not reveal who would play alongside skipper Fabian lustenberger at the heart of his defence. The Dutchman has enough options, with John Anthony Brooks, Christoph Janker and Hajime Hosogai all waiting in the wings. The latter did a good job against Augsburg recently. Luhukay: „We of course know Braunschweig from last season. It will be a tough battle like the ones last term as we both won promotion.“ He added: „Eintracht put maximum effort into their home games with everyone prepared to run for each other. They will have the home crowd behind them and really need all three points.“
Kraft expects defensive hosts – Lieberknecht predicts attacking visitors
Braunschweig are currently bottom of the Bundesliga table. Not so Hertha who are sitting pretty in seventh place. Luhukay reflected on his side's last away trip in Hoffenheim and told the gathered media in Berlin: „It was a good away performance in Hoffenheim during which we scored thre goals, while creating a number of other good chances. That day our reward was three points.“ The Berlin boss was also happy with his side's performance against FC Augsburg, even though the 0-0 result was not satisfactory. Luhukay: „Augsburg massed their defence for the whole game. Despite that fact, we still now. We expect to take on a team who like Augsburg will park their team bus in front of their goal, which makes it tough for us to create chances while keeping them at bay at the same time.
„On a good day we can match them“, says Braunschweig coach Torsten Lieberknecht before Sunday's clash. He says the reason that Hertha are eleven places above his team is because of the quality and experience the Berliners had last season and the better financial resources in the capital city. Lieberknecht said his team matched Hertha during the first meeting last season which ended 1-1. He than admitted that it was different as Hertha beat them 3-0 at the Olympic stadium in the second game. Eintracht are without key duo Marco Caligiuri and Kevin Reichel for the visit of Hertha: „Those injries have forced a rethink in my selection“, admitted Lieberknecht before looking ahead to Sunday and adding: „The points at stake are crucial to us, especially when you look at the other fixtures this weekend.“ Sunday's game is nothing special for Eintracht's Karim Bellarabi, even though he was born in Berlin. He said: „I still have lots of friends there and when I was growing up I used to find Hertha cool.“
Possible line ups:
Eintracht Braunschweig: Davari - Elabdellaoui, Bicakcic, Dogan, Perthel - Kratz, Vrancic, Theuerkauf - Bellarabi, Boland - Kumbela
Hertha BSC: Kraft - Pekarik, Brooks, Lustenberger, van den Bergh - Cigerci, Hosogai - Allagui/Ndjeng, Skjelbred, Schulz - Ramos