Newly promoted Elversberg will host FC Bayern on Sunday. Despite being clear underdogs, the team from the Saarland intends to put up a fierce fight against the Munich stars.
Following their Champions League opener against Bodo/Glimt, FC Bayern faces its next challenge in the Bundesliga right away. On Sunday at 5:30 p.m., the record-holding German champions will visit newly promoted SV Elversberg. And there, practically the entire town is eagerly anticipating the showdown with Bayern.
Elversberg has made a sensational start to the new season with two wins in its first two Bundesliga games. Ahead of the matchup against Vincent Kompany’s team, however, the Saarland side knows full well just how big a challenge lies ahead.
In an interview with *kicker*, coach Vincent Wagner used an unusual analogy: “Bayern are simply extremely good. We have about as much of a chance as a snowball in the desert. The nice thing is: it has even snowed in the desert before.”
Whether Wagner will even be allowed to watch the game from the sidelines, however, remains to be seen. Following his ejection and the resulting suspension, Elversberg has filed another appeal. The case will be heard in person on Friday at the DFB campus in Frankfurt.
If the suspension stands, assistant coach Pascal Bieler and former Bundesliga pro Mike Frantz would take over. Wagner remains calm about the situation: “I’m not worried at all that we won’t be able to handle it without me. It’s only if it always works without me that I’ll have to start worrying.”
“You really go for it there”
There’s respect for the big names at FC Bayern in Elversberg—but the newly promoted team has no intention of letting that intimidate them. Michael Olise, in particular, is in the spotlight ahead of the game. The French attacking star could find himself up against Lasse Günther on his side of the field.
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“He’s a world-class player,” Günther told the Saarbrücker Zeitung about Olise. “Being able to test yourself against someone like that is really something special.”
Captain Lukas Pinckert made it even clearer what kind of attitude Elversberg intends to bring against the Bayern stars. Whether it’s Olise, Harry Kane, or Joshua Kimmich: there will be no special treatment.
“You’ve got to go all out,” Pinckert declared, following up with a remarkably tough statement: “And if he gets injured and has to be subbed out, so be it. An opponent is still an opponent.”
The players are well aware that, despite their strong start to the season, Elversberg will have to give it their all. In their spectacular 4–3 win over Borussia Mönchengladbach, the newly promoted team made several individual mistakes. Against Bayern, such blunders could be punished much more severely.