All eyes on Bayern

The Herthaner started their training week on Tuesday afternoon brimming with confidence ahead of their season opener against FC Bayern on Friday night (20:30 CEST). 

Berlin – Hertha have now played FC Bayern 12 times at Munich’s Allianz Arena. Their record? 11 losses and one draw – a 0-0 during the 2017/18 season which was the first time they had come away from Munich with any points since 2004. The numbers really couldn’t be much worse for Hertha BSC heading in to the opening game of 2019/20. Nevertheless, the Herthaner will be travelling with lots of confidence after progressing through to the second round of the DFB-Pokal, and they will be looking to take points from Munich once again. In preparation, Ante Covic and his coaching team have organised an intense, albeit 'short', training week, which started on Tuesday afternoon with a 70-minute session. "We face the toughest opponents in the Bundesliga on matchday one, but the anticipation is huge! Everyone is on zero points so we have every chance of coming away with a result. We will be taking the match very seriously," Covic announced ahead of the duel with FC Bayern.

Experienced winger Salomon Kalou is looking forward to the match with confidence. “They’re certainly a very strong outfit, but we’ll give them a good game! We’re incredibly motivated travelling to Munich because we feel we have nothing to lose. We have to enjoy that feeling!” said the Ivorian. Unfortunately, there are a handful of players who won’t have the opportunity to enjoy the experience: Dedryck Boyata, Javairo Dilrosun, Marvin Plattenhardt (all with thigh problems), as well as Arne Maier (knee injury) were all missing from training on Tuesday. Peter Pekarik and Maximilian Mittelstädt meanwhile trained individually. The next training sessions on Wednesday and Thursday will be open to the public, before we finally get going for another Bundesliga season on Friday!