"Want a nice finish": Magdeburg anticipation

A first half of the season of contrasts lies behind 1. FC Magdeburg. Ahead of the final game at Fortuna Düsseldorf, the Elbe city side are bottom of the Bundesliga 2 home table with just six points and no wins. However, the club has the best away record of all teams with 19 points.

At 1:1 (0:0) against league leaders Paderborn, Philipp Hercher's 57th-minute goal was also not enough to secure a home win because FCM did not defend attentively in one scene and an unfortunate defensive action by goalkeeper Dominik Reimann resulted in a penalty. This was converted by Raphael Obermair (69'), a former Magdeburg player of all people.

"If we could explain that, we would have changed it already. We go into every game the same way, whether at home or away - and away works," said Hercher after the match. However, they played against a "very good opponent" at a high level. "The crux of the matter was simply that we didn't add the 2-0 after going 1-0 up," analyzed the former Lauter player.

Now to a fearful opponent

The Elbe club travel to Düsseldorf at the end of the year, where a kind of fearful opponent awaits in the form of Fortuna. Only three wins have been recorded in eleven games, the last of which was in March 2008. All of the matches in the 2nd Bundesliga and also in the cup were lost, sometimes in dramatic fashion. So it's high time to counter this negative record.

The reinvigorated Baris Atik will also provide support. As against Münster, the 29-year-old controlled Magdeburg's attacking play against Paderborn and was involved in many offensive actions. He himself was not surprised that the FCM's long-injured creative mind would be so strong so quickly: "I also have a certain amount of experience, it's not like I'm going to wet my pants if I haven't played for a long time," explained Atik.

However, the Palatinate-born player is not yet 100 per cent fit, as he admitted when asked. "I felt like playing today, I was up for it. But I think it was sensible of the coach to say - okay, let's get him out now," he explained his substitution after 80 minutes. After that, however, there was not much going forward for FCM.

"Away face is very good"

In Düsseldorf, Magdeburg want to show their away face again and bring the first half of the season to a positive conclusion. "We want to have a good finish. We definitely want to win the game and then celebrate with the fans, who will also be accompanying us on Friday evening," emphasized Hercher.

"Our away form is very good, so we'll just try to go full throttle there and get the three points," said Hercher. With 28 points, Magdeburg would spend the winter at the top of the extended league and would only need twelve points to secure their own 40 points to stay in the league.