Soccer
Niko Kovac praised Serhou Guirassy’s standout contributions for Borussia Dortmund this season, highlighting his importance ahead of their Bundesliga meeting with Augsburg.
The 28-year-old Guinea international, signed from Stuttgart in July last year, has scored 24 goals across all competitions this season and has often been the difference between victory and defeat for Dortmund in a difficult campaign.
He is the league’s top goalscorer in the second half of the season with seven goals, equalling his tally from the whole first half of the campaign.
In fact, Guirassy has scored twice as many goals per 90 minutes since the midway mark (1.0 vs. 0.5) and his xG per 90 minutes is also twice as high during this period (also 1.0 vs. 0.5).
“He’s like our life insurance at the moment. He’s always on and has to get through it,” Kovac told reporters.
“The fact that it’s Ramadan now doesn’t make it any easier for him, but he’s an absolute professional and he’ll manage that too.”
Practising Muslim adults do not eat or drink from dawn to sunset during Ramadan, presenting challenges to professional athletes.
Dortmund, who are 10th in the standings on 35 points, will be looking to build on their wins over St Pauli and Union Berlin when they host 11th-placed Augsburg on Saturday.
It is the first time they have won back-to-back Bundesliga games this season, and the first time since the opening two matchdays they have kept consecutive clean sheets in the competition.
Augsburg are looking to do the league double over Dortmund for the first time in the competition’s history, and Dortmund are in for a tough task if they want to avoid that fate. Their visitors’ resolute defence has let in only two goals in an eight-game unbeaten run in the league.
“Augsburg is a team that plays very physical football. They play with a very compact five-man defence, which has allowed very little recently,” Kovac said.
“It’s up to us to put a lot of pressure on them and create enough chances so that we can get our fans on our side and hopefully win this game.
“We take our opponents very seriously. We have to approach the game very seriously and with concentration.”
Dortmund will be without left-back Daniel Svensson, who suffered a ligament injury in their 1-1 draw with Lille in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie on Tuesday, as well as midfielder Felix Nmecha.
“We won’t change things [on Saturday]. The only thing that’s clear is that we’ll have to replace Daniel,” Kovac said.
“Svensson will miss some time. [Carney] Chukwuemeka trained with us today, but unfortunately didn’t give the green light. He won’t be involved tomorrow. Apart from Nmecha, everyone else will be fine and healthy.
“[Nmecha] completed his first run today. His level is satisfactory… It will take time, but he will be an important part of this club’s future.”
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