Coach Thorup wants to end home misery: Augsburg against Freiburg

Augsburg coach Jess Thorup would like to make the end of his birthday week more successful than his poker game at the club's casino night. "Unfortunately I wasn't lucky, but it was still a nice evening," said the Dane about the casual gambling visit to the WWK Arena for the benefit of the FCA youngsters. The Bundesliga club would now like to end their home drought at the FCA venue on Sunday (19:30/DAZN) against SC Freiburg.

"We've now had four home games with good performances, but unfortunately we've only picked up two points," said Thorup after four games against top teams Dortmund, Leverkusen, Bayern and Leipzig. "Now we have to try not only to put in a good performance, but also to pick up more points," said the 54-year-old coach, who took charge on Wednesday.

First negative record

The 1-0 defeat in Mainz the previous week means Thorup's record at FCA is negative for the first time since he took charge in October: In 15 games, there have been four wins, six draws and five defeats. The Swabians have won just one of their last nine Bundesliga games - a 2:1 win in Mönchengladbach on January 21. Not much has gone right at home this year.

"First of all, I'm proud to be head coach at Augsburg," Thorup summed up when asked about his interim report on Friday. The task now is to bring in more stability and continuity. "Hopefully we'll see that in the points."

Freiburg's self-confidence

This has never been the case against Europa League round of 16 finalists Freiburg. The team from Breisgau have won all of their last six matches, advancing in the European Cup against RC Lens after extra time. "Freiburg are coming to Augsburg with confidence. The fact that they had to go into extra time is not an advantage for us. We're focusing on our performance," said Thorup.

After the recent inconsistent performances of his goalkeeper Finn Dahmen, Thorup has decided that he will also be in goal against Freiburg. "At the moment, Finn is the clear number one," said the Dane. "Finn has my full confidence." In his 35 Bundesliga appearances for Mainz and Augsburg, Dahmen has yet to concede a goal - something that has never happened in more than six decades in the Bundesliga.

Thorup's cake surprise

Thorup will have to make do without yellow-carded defender Jeffrey Gouweleeuw and Mads Pedersen, who will have to sit out three games after his red card against Mainz. As Gouweleeuw's fellow defender Patric Pfeiffer is injured, Maximilian Bauer is set to start in defense.

At least the defensive players were all able to be present when Thorup surprisingly brought a cake he had baked himself to training for his birthday this week. "Nobody's stomach ached and everything was eaten," said the coach.