Following victories over Bayer Leverkusen (4-1) and Eintracht Frankfurt (3-2) to start the new year, Sebastian Hoeneß’s side begin the second half of the season at home to Union Berlin at the MHP Arena on Sunday 18 January (kick-off 15:30 CET).
Combination of quality and experience
“Union Berlin blend individual quality and experience,” said Hoeneß. “They’re physical and compact in defence, and can get forward quickly on the break. Steffen Baumgart is a very experienced coach and he’s having a good, steady season with his team. It’s not easy to beat them.”
That much was evident on Thursday evening in Augsburg, where “Union kept believing until the very end” and ultimately equalised in stoppage time to come away with a 1-1 draw.
VfB have shown character of their own in recent meetings with Union. Last season, Hoeneß’s men came from 2-0 down to win 3-2 at home and shared the points in a spectacular 4-4 draw in Berlin.
Finding balance
“One of the keys to success will definitely be to find balance in the different phases of the game, as well as being alert in transitions and defending Union’s set pieces,” said Hoeneß. “We’re happy to have started well in the new year and to have ended the first half of the season on a high. Now our objective has to be to harness that momentum to go into a difficult home match against Union Berlin with power and energy.”
El Khannouss in AFCON final
VfB are still without Bilal El Khannouss, albeit for a positive reason. The attacker has helped Morocco reach the Africa Cup of Nations final and will now face Senegal for the title on Sunday 18 January (kick-off 20:00 CET).
Tiago Tomás is sidelined with a muscle injury, Lazar Jovanovic has a back complaint while Dan-Axel Zagadou and Luca Jaquez are still in rehab.