"Our will has never been broken"

Matchday 31 sees 1. FC Nürnberg will host Bayer 04 Leverkusen at the Grundig Stadion on Sunday, April 20th. Kick-off is at 15:30 CEST.

SITUATION

There are just four matchdays remaining. ‘Der Club’ currently lie in 17th place and with two points between themselves and Hamburg and Stuttgart, “still have a real chance” of avoiding relegation. “We will do everything possible,” said manager Gertjan Verbeek at the press conference on Friday, April 18th.

The Dutchman is brimming with confidence and calmness, but has not forgotten about the defeats and is determined to stay on course. “When I began here, I knew that it would be a difficult season and would go down to the wire,” said Verbeek and explained what gives him confidence. “We have already tasted defeat on many occasions this season but the team’s will has never been broken.”

PERSONNEL

Gertjan Verbeek has to go without long term absentees Makoto Hasebe, Daniel Ginczek and Timo Gebhart against Leverkusen. Per Nilsson, Ondrej Petrak and Timothy Chandler have only trained individually this week and the match comes around too soon for them.

Adam Hlousek will also miss out after picking up his fifth booking of the season in Wolfsburg. Marvin Plattenhardt is likely to deputise for the Czech on the left wing and Javier Pinola should move to left back. It’s not known whether the injured Markus Feulner will feature. Mike Frantz and Javier Pinola will both have to tread carefully in the match as they are both on four yellow cards for the season.

OPPONENTS

Bayer 04 Leverkusen are currently in fourth place, one point clear of VfL Wolfsburg. Leverkusen have only won three times in the second half of the season after a very strong first half saw them go into the winter break in second place. Sascha Lewandowski took over from former manager Sami Hyypiä on April 5th and won 2-1 against Hertha BSC on the last matchday.

Lewandowski has to do without lots of players: Andres Guardado, Sidney Sam, Robbie Kruse, Konstantinos Stafylidis, as well as former FCN players Jens Hegeler and Stefan Reinartz are all unavailable for the manager.

FACTS

Marek Mintal hopes for the support of as many as possible ‘Der Club’ fans: “The stadium must be a fortress”.  Referee Marco Fritz will take charge of the match. Javier Pinola is set to make his 200th Bundesliga appearance.

Nürnberg’s home record against Leverkusen is equal to their opponents’. Each team has won this fixture on nine occasions, along with six draws. One that sticks in the memory is the 3-2 win over the up until then unbeaten Leverkusen in the 2009/10 season. ‘Der Club’ also won 1-0 in 2002 and in doing so retained their Bundesliga status on matchday 33.