Heuer Fernandes: "This is nothing ordinary".

He would also have been very likely to defuse the last penalty of the evening. Although KSC centre-back Daniel O'Shaughnessy ultimately failed to hit the right-hand post, Daniel Heuer Fernandes had dived into the threatened corner with all his might anyway and would probably have been on hand - as he had been for the attempts by Marvin Wanitzek and Ricardo van Rhijn, which the HSV keeper brilliantly thwarted, thus opening the door for a place in the DFB Cup semi-finals in the first place. As in the 2nd round (in Nürnberg) and the round of 16 (in Köln), "Ferro" became a key player (and the official Man of the Match) in the crunch time and underlined his status as the absolute back-up in the HSV goal. In today's media round, however, the 29-year-old humbly passed on the credit for his performance to his teammates, who once again defied all odds to give the 25,000 spectators at the Volksparkstadion a very special cup evening. Daniel Heuer Fernandes spoke to the sports journalists present after the run-out about the fans' share in the great success, his emotional state on the day after the victory (5:4 n.E.) and the focus on league action.

In detail, the German-Portuguese talked about...

... his feelings after the victory:  "We are very happy to be in the semi-finals. We can be very satisfied with the team's performance and the way we played, it was a real cup fight. We always believed in ourselves - no matter in which moments - and showed a perfect reaction to the setbacks. What we achieved yesterday is nothing ordinary. These are the football matches you became a professional for.

... his share as a cup hero: Yesterday we had many cup heroes. Robert Glatzel contributed a lot to our progress, Bakery Jatta also marched from top to bottom for 120 minutes. But that goes for the whole team, you can really single out all the players. The atmosphere in the stadium was also outstanding, the fans whipped us forward. That was certainly one of the reasons why we were able to put in such a performance.

... the switch to league play: That's football life and it's good that it's moving on again so quickly. After the North derby defeat, we were very happy to have the cup evening right in front of us, so now we want to flip the switch back to everyday league life. We know it's going to be a very good game, we're taking a lot on board and we're looking forward to it, because the league is also something special. Of course, we have to regenerate well first, but we have a broad squad for that. On Saturday, we want to give everything we've got left in the tank.

... the game in Nürnberg on Saturday:  The club has a strong team and often a good match plan. But of course we want to go all out, play full-throttle football and stay brave. The team is very fit, otherwise the power play wouldn't be feasible. It is part of our philosophy that we always believe in ourselves and play forward.