Augsburg vs Paderborn preview - Breitenreiter: Augsburg set example

Paderborn coach Andre Breitenreiter takes his club to one of their role models this weekend as they pay Augsburg a visit.

Augsburg were promoted to the top flight of German football for the first time in their history three years ago, and have managed to remain their ever since.

After avoiding relegation narrowly at the end of their first year, their last two seasons have been more comfortable - they even almost snatched a place in Europe at the end of last term.

That is the kind of development Breitenreiter wants his own club to take, so he will be asking his players to pay particular attention to their opponents this weekend.

"Augsburg have improved step by step in recent years and they can be a role model to us," Breitenreiter said at a press conference.

A glance at the league table after 10 games would suggest Paderborn actually have a thing or two to show Augsburg, with three points between the two sides.

"But we're not going to be favourites in any game we play this season," insisted Breitenreiter, whose side are one of the surprise packages of the season so far, with few having given them even a chance of staying up.

"The level of expectation around the club is not growing because we all know where we have come from," he added.

The same cannot necessarily be said for Augsburg, on the other hand.

After going so close to clinching a place in the Europa League, the two years battling to avoid relegation already seem to have been forgotten with their fans already seemingly unhappy to be only in mid-table.

It is a measure of how far they have come that a narrow 1-0 defeat at Schalke - a result which would have been seen positively a few seasons ago - was met with sadness and frustration.

"It's incredible that we've not taken anything," captain Paul Verhaegh said. "We were by far the better team."

Raul Bobadilla added: "We're absolutely disappointed because we played better and gave everything, yet we come home with nothing. Schalke won and they don't even know why."

The Bavarians will be keen to bounce back on Saturday and trade places with Paderborn in the top half of the table.