Pre-Match Report
U19s travel to Leipzig with a good feeling ahead of league kick-off
The 39-year-old, who has coached BVB's top talents since August 2022, took over the team ten days ago following Mike Tullberg's change of scenery to the professional team and will coach the side together with U23 assistant coach Marcel Schmelzer for the first game of the campaign. Yilmaz, who holds a football coaching licence, previously worked successfully alongside Sebastian Geppert at the U17s. Mike Tullberg and assistant coaches Daniel Rios and Patrick Fritsch are due to resume their duties with the U19s at the start of next week.
Marcel Schmelzer in particular is travelling to the Saxon metropolis with a good feeling. After all, Borussia's U17s reached the final of the German B-Junior Championship in May last year with the former Dortmund professional and head coach Marco Lehmann on the sidelines, winning 3-2 in Leipzig. Leipzig's squad at the time - like BVB's - were almost all promoted to the current U19s, so there will be a rematch of sorts on Saturday.
"We know that we're up against a very good, aggressive and intense opponent," explained Eren Yilmaz, who added confidently: "But we also have a strong team with great characters. In Leipzig, we will have to be stable defensively in order to stop them in transitional moments."
After the first part of the preparation for the second half of the season was bumpy due to call-ups to national teams (Ousmane Diallo, Samuele Inacio, Luca Reggiani) or the training groups of the professionals and U23s (Yilmaz: "A correct and important step for the individual development of the players"), Eren Yilmaz completed the preseason training programme with almost the entire squad in attendance. "We worked intensively on processes and automatisms," he emphasises. It was frustrating, however, that the last friendly against AZ Alkmaar was called off due to the Dutch side's cancellation at short notice. "The boys were very upset about that," says Yilmaz.
Fidjeu-Tazemeta out for a long time - Diallo suspended
In the two warm-up wins over 1. FC Köln (2-0) and VfL Wolfsburg (1-0), the Black & Yellows impressed for long stretches. Now they face their first test against a team who were surprisingly pipped to the post by Chemnitzer FC in the preliminary Group G table, but who nonetheless comfortably qualified for League A.
BVB will not be able to draw on a full complement of players in Leipzig, although Diego Ngambia is set to make his comeback after a long injury lay-off. In addition to attacking players Thierry Fidjeu-Tazemeta, who suffered a syndesmosis tear in the game against Cologne and will be out for weeks, Pharell Kegni (back problems) and Joshua Burstedde (recovery training), top striker Ousmane Diallo, who was shown a yellow card in the last point game against Düsseldorf, will also be missing. "We will find good solutions to replace them," assured Eren Yilmaz.
(wiwi)