At the end of the first half of the season, Fortuna Cologne wants to get back on track after two consecutive draws: On Saturday (2 p.m.), Sportfreunde Lotte will be the guests at the Südstadion.

Fortuna Cologne still has hopes of winning the autumn championship in the Regionalliga West. However, this requires a home win on Saturday against Sportfreunde Lotte.

If Fortuna wins and FC Schalke’s U23 team draws against 1. FC Köln’s U23 team, Fortuna will overtake the Royal Blues’ reserve team.

“Our goal is not just to score points, but to win,” emphasizes coach Matthias Mink, who has almost a full squad to choose from.

Mink: “At the moment, colds are popping up from one day to the next. That’s why we have to wait and see which players will actually be available on Saturday. Basically, all the players are on board and motivated. It’s not a given that you’ll have such a good personnel situation in November. But that’s also thanks to the team’s hard work and is a result of the positive development.”

The team from Lotter Kreuz is currently in ninth place. Not good enough for the top, but too good for the bottom: that’s how you could sum up the season for Sportfreunde, who are in the middle of the table.

“Offensively, Lotte has good to very good regional league quality. We all know Leon Demaj, who has already scored a lot of goals. Marc Heider is also well known to everyone. He still has his qualities, especially in the box. And then they have Samuel Addai and Diamant Berisha, two very fast wingers who are also dangerous in front of goal. That’s why we’ve mainly focused on how to get to grips with this offensive quality,” says Fortuna coach Mink. Fortuna has recorded four wins and four draws in eight home games so far. Against Sportfreunde Lotte, who have also won four games away from home, the aim is to maintain their clean sheet at the Südstadion.