FIRST TEAM
04/24/2014

Markus Gisdol: “We want to win in front of a sell-out crowd”

Saturday, April 26th sees TSG welcome Eintracht Frankfurt to the WIRSOL Rhein-Neckar-Arena in the penultimate home game of the season (15:30 CEST kick-off). Markus Gisdol and Andreas Beck were at the pre-match press conference on Thursday and spoke about their good memories from the meeting earlier this season, a game Hoffenheim won 2-1 in the Commerzbank Arena.

“It was a very fiery match, both on the pitch and in the stands,” said Gisdol reminiscently. Beck, who extended his contract with TSG until 2017 on Thursday morning, added: “In the end, we were left with that good feeling of a win. In general, you could say that matches against Eintracht are always hard-fought and full of passion. We have always had to work hard for points.”

And Beck could be considered an expert. He has been on the pitch in six of the club's nine Bundesliga meetings with Frankfurt so far. The overall head-to-head record is clearly in Hoffenheim's favour – TSG have recorded five wins and two draws, losing just twice to Eintracht.

Markus Gisdol would like to build on that record on Saturday: “Our stadium will be sold out. Of course we want to keep the points here in front of a sell-out crowd. We have won five of our six home games this year and long may that continue.” However, the boss also has respect for Armin Veh's team: “Frankfurt are very robust physically but are also good technically. They've had somewhat of a revival in the second half of the season and they're playing good football.”

Four missing, Abraham involved

Gisdol almost has a full squad to choose from in his search for another home win. Koen Casteels, Sven Schipplock and Tobias Strobl are the only players missing through injury. Casteels is out for the remainder of the season with a broken shin bone, Schipplock is still suffering from nerve inflammation and Strobl clashed heads with a Bremen player last week.

“Tobias had a bit of a concussion after the game at Schalke at the end of last year and he was complaining of dizziness last week. It would be careless to play him. We have to keep an eye on the situation. It's still unclear whether he will be available in Dortmund next week.” Otherwise, TSG will be without Tarik Elyounoussi, who picked up his fifth booking of the season last week.

There is some positive news for David Abraham though. “He trained completely free of pain for the first time this week. He's been suffering for five or six weeks,” said Gisdol. The gaffer didn't want to reveal whether or not the Argentine will be in the starting line-up on Saturday though.

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