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"It's brilliant coaching players like this"
"He always trains at full throttle," said a delighted Lucien Favre of his new signing Erling Haaland – who scored a debut hat-trick against FC Augsburg last weekend immediately after coming off the bench – at the press conference prior to the home game against 1. FC Cologne. "If he misses a chance in training, he gets angry. It's brilliant coaching players like this – he brings happiness, that's good for everyone," he said of the 19-year-old Norwegian. The boss was also full of praise for youngster Giovanni Reyna, another player who made his first Bundesliga appearance for the Black & Yellows against Augsburg. "You can see in training he has something about him. He's in the right places, he does the right things. He's doing very well for a 17-year-old. If he keeps playing like that, he'll go places."
Delaney and Zagadou sidelined
Favre will be without two players for the upcoming match on home turf: Thomas Delaney (knee problems) and Dan-Axel Zagadou (torn muscle fibre) will not be available to face the visitors from the Rhineland. There is good news, however: the duo of Marcel Schmelzer and Tobias Raschl returned to team training during the week.
Cologne riding high
In Cologne, BVB will be up against a highly motivated team that have taken three points from each of their last four matches – against Bayer Leverkusen, Eintracht Frankfurt, Werder Bremen and VfL Wolfsburg – and climbed up to 13th position in the Bundesliga table as a result. "Cologne have stabilised very well," said Favre. "They're solid and have introduced a lot of young players; the mixture is working well," continued the 62-year-old as he reflected upon the Billy Goats' strong form. Statistically speaking, however, the signs point towards a BVB victory. The Black & Yellows are unbeaten in 19 home games against Cologne (W15 D4) – their longest such run against any opponent ever.