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<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\nNiko Kovac praised Serhou Guirassy\u2019s standout contributions for Borussia Dortmund this season, highlighting his importance ahead of their Bundesliga meeting with Augsburg.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
He is the league\u2019s top goalscorer in the second half of the season with seven goals, equalling his tally from the whole first half of the campaign.<\/p>\n
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).<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s like our life insurance at the moment. He\u2019s always on and has to get through it,\u201d Kovac told reporters.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that it\u2019s Ramadan now doesn\u2019t make it any easier for him, but he\u2019s an absolute professional and he\u2019ll manage that too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Practising Muslim adults do not eat or drink from dawn to sunset during Ramadan, presenting challenges to professional athletes.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Augsburg are looking to do the league double over Dortmund for the first time in the competition\u2019s history, and Dortmund are in for a tough task if they want to avoid that fate. Their visitors\u2019 resolute defence has let in only two goals in an eight-game unbeaten run in the league.<\/p>\n
\u201cAugsburg is a team that plays very physical football. They play with a very compact five-man defence, which has allowed very little recently,\u201d Kovac said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe take our opponents very seriously. We have to approach the game very seriously and with concentration.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe won\u2019t change things [on Saturday]. The only thing that\u2019s clear is that we\u2019ll have to replace Daniel,\u201d Kovac said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSvensson will miss some time. [Carney] Chukwuemeka trained with us today, but unfortunately didn\u2019t give the green light. He won\u2019t be involved tomorrow. Apart from Nmecha, everyone else will be fine and healthy.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Nmecha] completed his first run today. His level is satisfactory\u2026 It will take time, but he will be an important part of this club\u2019s future.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
Read More<\/a>SoccerNews<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Soccer Niko Kovac praised Serhou Guirassy\u2019s 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":832468,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[107699,142292,2005],"tags":[107698,142291],"class_list":{"0":"post-832467","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-in-form","8":"category-kovac","9":"category-soccer","10":"tag-in-form","11":"tag-kovac"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=832467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/832468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=832467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=832467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=832467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}