Baum fully focused on Sunday’s trip to Bremen

After FC Augsburg secured a late 1-0 win in Kiel in the DFB-Pokal, the focus has turned to Sunday’s trip to SV Werder Bremen (15:30 CET). There a couple of injury doubts in the squad as Manuel Baum’s side prepare to face the Green-Whites. “I praised the team on reaching the DFB-Pokal quarter-finals. However, that certainly wasn’t our best performance of the season,” said the 39-year-old head coach reflecting on Wednesday’s clash with Holstein Kiel. Nevertheless, Baum was thrilled that his side were still in contention in the tournament. Shortly after returning to Augsburg, FCA turned their attentions to Sunday’s Bundesliga clash with Werder Bremen. “We know what we need to do in Bremen if we want to take something from the match,” said Baum. The FCA head coach has already formulated his game plan for the match in the Weser-Stadion. Baum is aware of the dangers that the Green-Whites, currently 10th in the Bundesliga table, possess. “Bremen have got a very strong squad who are technically gifted and winning to work hard. They are one of the best clubs in Germany and they showed this on Tuesday night as they knocked Dortmund out of the DFB-Pokal.” Claudio Pizarro is just one of the experienced Werder players who Baum believes could make a difference on Sunday. “It is a lot of fun to watch him play. He still is one of Bremen’s biggest assets for the match.” Doubts surrounding FCA’s starting lineup Baum was missing several key players for the DFB-Pokal match in Kiel. “It wasn’t the case that we simply rested players for the Pokal match. The opportunity to reach the quarter-finals was something unique and special to us.” Ahead of the match with Werder Bremen, several FCA players are still doubts to feature. These include Alfred Finnbogason, Jan Moravek (both suffering muscle problems), Ja-Cheol Koo (back problem) and Jonathan Schmid (adductor problem). “If we do our homework, the other teams can play in the style they want to,” commented Manuel Baum regarding the two matches involving the other teams at the bottom of the Bundesliga table (Hannover 96 v 1. FC Nürnberg & Fortuna Düsseldorf v VfB Stuttgart). The two victories so far this week have given the team new confidence going into this weekend. “We want to repeat our strong performance against Mainz and take the positives out of our late victory in Kiel into Sunday’s clash in Bremen.”