"In terms of personnel everything’s looking good. After his interior knee ligament injury, Steven Zuber trained with the team again for the first time yesterday, then Erik Thommy joined them today after his ankle problems," said Willig at the press conference ahead of the match against the second-division team. VfB will have to do without the services of Neben Santiago Ascacibar, who is serving a ban and will be able to play in the return leg on Monday (20:30 CEST) in Berlin, as well as Andreas Beck who is injured.
"It’s been a tough season, in particular for the fans, but now we need that support more than ever. They’ve stuck by us through thick and thin and willed us on," said Willig, acknowledging the contribution of the VfB fans and making one last appeal to them 48 hours before the match.
Go out enjoy themselves, know when to take risks and when to be patient
The caretaker boss promised that his players would give their best in return. "The lads are totally focused on the task ahead both in training and off the pitch, and can’t wait for the two matches. The know that they have to deliver, to block everything else out and be absolutely ready to put in a good performance." The last four matches saw the team pick up points on three occasions and keep a clean sheet every time, "and that meant that we ended up having far more fun in our daily training sessions. We want to, in fact we have to keep this going throughout this crucial week."
Willig believes that Union Berlin will be a "tough nut to crack. They are strong at the back, and as a team there are very strong mentally and full of running." Breaking them down will require patience but also a few risks, and so the caretaker coach was calling for "passion" as well as "cool heads. It’s two matches, 180 minutes, maybe more. We are really looking forward to Thursday but the play-offs won’t be decided in purely the first or the second match. We can’t lose sight of that – we need to stick to our game plan."