“We need a lot of energy on Saturday!”

Ralph Hasenhüttl and Dominik Kaiser look forward to the home game against Wolfsburg | Willi Orban, Naby Keïta and Emil Forsberg suspended | Konrad Laimer also not available for the game

Our final home game is approaching! Die Roten Bullen face VfL Wolfsburg, who are 16th in the league table, in the last competitive home fixture of the season on Saturday (KO 15:30 CEST).

Head coach Ralph Hasenhüttl and midfielder Dominik Kaiser spoke to the media about the upcoming opponents and gave updates on the squad ahead of the match.

Ralph Hasenhüttl

“It’s our last home game of the season and we want to pick up an important three points. It’s been a season with a lot of highs, but there have also been some lows sprinkled throughout. It’s now time to give something back to the fans in the last home game because they’ve supported us so much and helped us through the highs and lows. We want to make sure that we have something to celebrate at the end of the season and that’s the mentality we’ll be taking into the game on Saturday.

The lads have been fully focused in training. We’re not overflowing with confidence at the moment, but we have to build up confidence in the game by winning the ball and hopefully taking the lead. We have to make use of the chances which present themselves. If we go behind, we have to believe in ourselves and show the mentality to come back. We need a lot of energy on Saturday! Everyone at RB Leipzig is facing this challenge together.

It happens with every opponent we face who are fighting to stay up. We work hard to create big chances to score the opener so that we can qualify for Europe. Wolfsburg will give their all in the game. They’ve tried a lot of new things in recent games and made changes so we’ll have to see how they line up and what they do against us. However, it’s not so important what they do, it’s more about how we implement our tactics.”

Dominik Kaiser

“It’ll be a special game for me – my last home game in a stadium in which I’ve experienced so many wonderful moments. However, my emotions are secondary because it’s an immensely important match for us as a team to end a good season well.

In order to do that, we have to stamp out individual errors and believe in our own ability. We have the chance to qualify for Europe for the second time in our second season in the Bundesliga. All of us see this opportunity as enough motivation to push ourselves to the limit again and achieve our goal.

Despite many players being unavailable for Saturday’s game, we’ll still have a strong team on the pitch. Of course we’ve talked about our difficulties last week within the team. But now we have to take it to the pitch and stay stable in the shaky moments and be able to fight back when things aren’t going our way. I’m sure that we can do it.”

The match comes too early for Konrad Laimer to return. Emil Forsberg and Naby Keïta are both serving suspensions.

Willi Orban will also miss Saturday's game with a suspension. Diego Demme is also close to a ban with four yellow cards.

Squad update:

Konrad Laimer has returned to team training after being out for four weeks with a muscle tear in his thigh, but is not yet match-fit.

Willi Orban (five yellow cards), Naby Keïta (double yellow card) and Emil Forsberg (red card) will all miss the match with suspensions.

Diego Demme is close to a ban with four yellow cards.

Philipp Köhn, Marcel Halstenberg und Marcel Sabitzer will also miss the match with long-term injuries.

U19 players Niclas Stierlin and Kilian Ludewig are likely to make the step up to the first-team squad.

We have the chance to qualify for Europe for the second time in our second season in the Bundesliga. All of us see this opportunity as enough motivation to push ourselves to the limit again and achieve our goal.

Dominik Kaiser