Hoeneß provides team news ahead of Champions League clash

With a crucial home fixture against Atalanta coming up in the Champions League, Stuttgart coach Sebastian Hoeneß provided news and his thoughts as VfB look to build on their fantastic win against Juventus last time out in the competition.

Beginning with team news, Hoeneß confirmed that Jamie Leweling will be unavailable after a muscle injury sustained on Friday evening against Bayer Leverkusen.

However, “Jeff Chabot and Maxi Mittelstädt will be back, as will Leonidas Stergiou, who is back in the squad for the first time this season. Otherwise, there are no changes.”

Hoeneß also gave his thoughts on Chris Führich, who has shone in recent weeks after a tough start to the campaign. 

“Chris came back in good shape and made a good impression. He decided our game against Kaiserslautern and also had his moments in attack against Leverkusen.”

With El-Bilal Toure set to face his parent club after arriving on loan from Atalanta in the summer, Hoeneß spoke out regarding his recent explosion in form.

“Elbi is a strong striker who can play with both feet. It was very important for us to get him because of his explosiveness.”

“Recently, his trend has been clearly upwards, and he has won two games for us in quick succession. I have also gotten some advice from him about Atalanta. Such conversations also help in preparing for games.”

In regards to Atalanta, Hoeneß paid huge respect to La Dea and their coach, Gian Piero Gasperini.

“I would like to express my greatest respect and praise my fellow coaches. They have been represented internationally for years, came fourth in the league last year and won the Europa League.”

“Atalanta have an experienced team that has seen it all. They have a very special style of play, use man-to-man marking throughout and can hurt teams that play well.”

“We are really looking forward to being able to compete with one of the biggest European teams and want to prove once again that we can keep up.”

VfB enter the midweek clash after a 0-0 stalemate with Bayer Leverkusen, whilst Atalanta overcame league leaders Napoli by three goals to nil on Sunday afternoon.