Augsburg will be looking to bounce back to winning ways in the Bundesliga when they welcome Werder Bremen to the WWK Arena for a gameweek 31 showdown on Saturday afternoon.
The hosts come into this match following a 3-1 loss to Eintracht Frankfurt last week, while the visitors pulled off an against-the-odds victory over Champions League hopefuls Stuttgart.
Match preview
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With 39 points amassed from 29 matches, Augsburg have already surpassed last season's total by five points and are still in with an outside chance of securing their first top-six finish since 2014.
However, their loss to Frankfurt last week was a costly one, as it caused them drop a spot in the league standings to eighth and also saw the gap to the top six widen to six points with four games left to play in the season.
The Fuggerstadt took an early lead through Ruben Vargas in the last match, but SGE found their rhythm in the second half, firing in three goals without response to claim the points on the day.
Jess Thorup's side will now prepare to face Werder Bremen, who they have beaten more times (12) than any other team in their Bundesliga history. They have also scored more goals against Bremen than any other team in the top flight(38).
Augsburg is unbeaten in its last five league home games (W3 D2 L0) - their longest run without defeat since the 2017-18 season, when they went six in a row under Manuel Baum.
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Meanwhile, after losing 5-0 to Bayer Leverkusen, which saw Xabi Alonso's side secure the Bundesliga title, Werder Bremen recovered well against another high-flying team, Stuttgart, by securing an upset 2-1 victory over them last week.
Marvin Ducksch broke the deadlock from the penalty spot before the half-hour mark and doubled his tally shortly after the interval. Despite Deniz Undav pulling one back for the visitors with 20 minutes remaining, Bremen held on to take all three points.
That result marked the end of a dismal seven-match winless run that included five losses and a draw, which saw Ole Werner's side drop to just one point above the relegation playoff spot at the start of gameweek 30.
However, Werner will now need to find a positive result on the road, where his side have failed to win any of their last four matches (W0 D1 L3), capped off by their heaviest defeat since 2017 when they were blown away in that 5-0 defeat to Die Werkself.
While the hosts enter this contest as the bookmakers' favourite, the River Islanders are the side with the momentum from last week and will gain confidence from having beaten this opponent 2-0 in the reverse fixture at the start of December.
Team News
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The hosts will have to make do without the services of Fredrik Jensen (calf), Elvis Rexhbecaj (broken ankle), Robert Gumny (ACL) and Reece Oxford (illness), all of whom are ruled out for the remainder of the season.
Iago and Raphael Framberger will remain out of action until next month due to a foot and ACL injury, respectively, while Niklas Dorsch is flagged as a doubt for this weekend's match owing to an injured leg.
For the visitors, former Liverpool midfielder Naby Keita has been dropped for the rest of the season following his refusal to travel for Bremen's match against Leverkusen after finding out that he was not starting the match.
Other midfield absentees for this match include Skelly Alvero and Isak Hansen-Aaroen, who are out with injuries, while Jens Stage is still suspended after being sent off against Frankfurt at the start of the month.
Veteran goalkeeper Jiri Pavlenka is out until next month with a muscle injury, which will likely see Michael Zetterer continue in goal behind the defensive trio of Milos Veljkovic, Marco Friedl and Anthony Jung.
Augsburg possible starting lineup:
Dahmen; Mbabu, Gouweleeuw, Uduokhai, Pedersen; Engels, Jakic, Maier, Vargas; Demirovic, Tietz
Werder Bremen possible starting lineup:
Zetterer; Veljkovic, Friedl, Jung; Weiser, Bittencourt, Lynen, Agu; Woltemade, Schmid; Ducksch
We say: Augsburg 2-1 Werder Bremen
Augsburg are still holding on to hopes of qualifying for Europe next season but need to continue winning games in order to keep that dream alive. While Bremen pulled off a morale-boosting win against Stuttgart last time out, their away form has been very poor of late, and we feel they will struggle to take anything against an FCA outfit that are unbeaten in their last five home matches.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Devesh Jaganath
