scfreiburg.com: Nico, do you remember September 26th 2021?

Nico Schlotterbeck: That was probably when we played Augsburg at home this season.

Yes, exactly.

That was such a special game, our last in the Dreisamstadion. We put in a top performance.

What feelings do you look back on that game with?

As players, we went into the game as if it was any other. We took the lead early, showed good aggression on the pitch and got into our flow. The fans created a special atmosphere that night which we really took on board – it made us put on a show.

Is it a game you’ll remember two and three years down the line?

Definitely! We actually spoke about that game within the squad pretty recently, as it was one that we dominated from start to finish. Augsburg barely had any of the ball; we kept it so well. As a defender, we hardly let anything through – we completely dominated the game. The 3-0 against Augsburg and the 6-0 away to Gladbach are the two games that we’ll remember most fondly from the first half of the season.

Now, we face FCA once again, away from home this time. What targets do you have there?

Our goal, as ever, is to win. I’ll be honest, I haven’t had the best of experiences in Augsburg up to now – it’s a tough place to go. Just like us, FCA have some great fans who get behind their team, and they play in a pretty similar way to us with compactness and aggression. It’ll be important for us to take the lead in the game, rather than going behind and fighting through a parked bus to come back.

This season has gone quite well for you so far – you hadn’t missed a match this campaign before you got Covid. How satisfied are you with your time on the pitch?

The first half of the season went better than the second half has gone so far. The Corona infection did knock me out a bit. I had a bit of an issue with my left hand in the games against Hoffenhim and Stuttgart too, but it didn’t affect my performances. When I put in solid performances and the rest of the team does as well, then we’re a very, very good team. We’ll try to put that across against Augsburg. There are some incredibly important weeks ahead of us, and I hope that we can perform like we did in the first half of the season in these games.

Augsburg beat Union Berlin but lost to Gladbach. What do you expect to face?

I’m expecting to face a side who will send a lot of long, high balls that us defenders will have to deal with. André Hahn is strong in the air and we know Florian Niederlechner well too. They also have good individual players on the wings like Ruben Vargas. We can’t let them get into the game; if we play how we know we can, I think we’ll be the better side.

We drew 1-1 against Mainz at the weekend. A key theme in the game was the VAR, but not only that, right?

No, definitely not. In the first half especially, it was quite simply a poor game for us. We let way too much get past us, and Mainz could have been two or three up before the break. We can’t allow that to happen, especially in the back line. It was a similar way to how we played against Köln; we barely got going, hardly won any second balls and didn’t settle on the ball, even if we actually did okay in the final third. We need to improve.

Christian Streich has said that he wants to train hard on the basics. What’s your week of training looking like?

We’re definitely doing a lot of work this week, a bit like we did in the winter break. If we do well in training this week, then we’ll do well in Augsburg.

Interview: Marcel Burger, Sina Ojo