FC St. Pauli

"We'll keep on doing what we've been doing in the last few weeks," said Janßen. "We'll gather the walking wounded and see who's fit enough to go 90 minutes on Saturday. Jeremy Dudziak, Waldemar Sobota, Richard Neudecker and Maurice Litka all picked up knocks against Kiel. We'll see how they are in training on Friday and if they can train, they're certainly options."

Lasse Sobiech, who returned to the starting lineup on Tuesday evening, is as well as can be expected under the circumstances. "It would have been better for him if he hadn't had to go 90 minutes, of course, but the situation demanded it," said Janßen. "We now have to control the workload in training and make sure the players get the best possible recovery."

The Rhinelanders are coached by Friedhelm Funkel, an old acquaintance of Janßen's. "I was born in Krefeld and had the great fortune of being able to train with the Bayer Uerdingen senior squad when I was just 16 years old," he said. "Friedhelm was my teammate back then and our paths have crossed many times since. Düsseldorf have a lot of Bundesliga experience with him and Peter Herrmann and that shows in their team. They play a no-nonsense game and have a lot of experienced players. They're able to rotate a lot and have loads of options. We need to be prepared for that.“

A win over the league leaders would be the fifth of the season and the mood in the camp could hardly be better. "You're looking at a very happy coach who's very proud to have picked up 13 points under these circumstances," said Janßen. "If we want to be successful on Saturday, we'll need to draw on our proven qualities. The essential idea behind our game is to make it as difficult as possible for the opposition to score. That's the basis. We're improving as a footballing team as well. That doesn't happen overnight, however, but I think we're on the right track. Having said that, setting out to run rings round the league leaders on Saturday would be to miss the mark somewhat."

Photo: Witters