Augsburg vs. Mainz preview: Hosts targeting back-to-back victories

Augsburg will attempt to claim a second straight victory when they welcome Mainz 05 to the WWK Arena on Friday.

Augsburg

Augsburg are currently sitting in 11th spot after taking four points from their opening three league games. They kicked off the campaign with a 2-2 home draw against Werder Bremen, before they fell to a heavy 4-0 defeat to Heidenheim in their final outing before the international break. 

Jess Thorup's side ultimately produced a positive response on their return from the two-week break, dispatching St. Pauli by a 3-1 scoreline to clinch their first league win of the season. Marius Wolf, Phillip Tietz and Yusuf Kabadayı all got on the scoresheet to end Augsburg’s three-game winless home run in the top flight. 

The Fuggerstädter are now preparing for another home outing as they look to claim consecutive league victories for the first time since March. Augsburg will take confidence from the fact they have won six of their last seven home league games against Mainz.

Team News

Augsburg are unable to call upon Daniel Klein, Reece Oxford, Robert Gumny and Masaya Okugawa.

Werder Bremen

Mainz are still searching for their first league win after experiencing an underwhelming start to the Bundesliga season. They drew 1-1 in their league opener against Union Berlin, before they played out an entertaining 3-3 draw with Stuttgart. 

Unfortunately for Mainz, they were unable to take anything from their recent home meeting with Werder Bremen. Lee Jae-sung cancelled out Marvin Ducksch’s eighth-minute penalty to send Mainz into the break on level terms. However, Bremen’s Derrick Köhn scored a second-half winner to condemn die Nullfünfer to their first defeat of the season. Incidentally, the result represented Mainz’s first home league defeat since February 3 when they also lost to Bremen.

Die Nullfünfer will now head on their travels for Friday’s Bundesliga fixture. The visitors have won just one of their previous 22 away league matches, but they at least managed to avoid defeat in their last five Bundesliga away games.

Team News

Mainz boss Bo Henriksen is hopeful that Andreas Hanche-Olsen will be available after missing the defeat to Bremen with a head injury.