“With this kind of power behind us, you always have a chance of landing a lucky punch”

Daniel Heuer Fernandes: It was pretty much the kind of game you would have expected in the first place. The opposition had a lot of the ball and possess an incredible amount of quality. You could see early on that Stuttgart had much more control of the game. But that was fine for us, too. After 20 minutes, we started to grow into the game, created a few chances of our own and managed to keep things open. At home, with the power of the fans behind us, you know that a moment of magic like today’s can always happen. Our willingness to work hard without the ball is a real strength for us at the moment. We have beaten a Champions League side with a strong positional game. Against teams like that, you first have to stay solid and then look for ways to gain control. The second half was an evenly matched contest, with chances at both ends. If I could pick one of our players to be in that situation, it would be Miro. He has an unbelievable left foot and is always a threat. I’m delighted that he has been able to reward himself for his performances recently. He has stayed focused and true to himself over the past few weeks.

Yussuf Poulsen: It was a game that could have gone either way. Our goalkeeper came up with the goods at the crucial moments, and we managed to get our shots away in the closing stages. A lot of Bundesliga games are decided by precisely these little details. Overall, it was a superb performance against a team competing in the Champions League. It’s great to see how hard the whole team fights. Several players were suffering from cramp towards the end, but they still kept going right to the final whistle. That’s exactly the mentality we need to beat teams like this. What sets us apart is that we’re always there for one another. I was already on my feet when Miro took control of the ball. He had already scored three goals like that during the warm-up. We know how good he is in front of goal.

Miro Muheim: It feels incredible, and I haven’t really taken it all in yet. I think the emotions will hit me later, when I get home. Celebrating in front of the Nordtribüne was unbelievable. I’m exhausted at the moment and need some time to process it all. When the final whistle went, all the tension just disappeared. We’ve now won three games in a row now. After a difficult start to the season, we’ve stayed focused and true to ourselves. We knew which areas we needed to improve, and we’ve been working on them week after week. We have to keep building on that. Now we have another game coming up, and we want to win that one too.

Sebastiaan Bornauw: We’re very happy with the win because Stuttgart are a very good team. It’s incredible how much energy there is within the team and how much energy the fans give us. Today, you could see that we’re getting better and better at finding our rhythm and understanding how we need to play together. We have to keep going like this. We always believed we could do it because we knew Stuttgart had played in the Champions League during the week and might not be able to maintain the same intensity in the second half. We had more energy towards the end. Miro scored a fantastic goal. He has a brilliant left foot. I’m sure that if he took that shot ten times, he’d score at least eight of them.

Merlin Polzin: In the opening 15 minutes, we missed a few opportunities to put our game plan into practice. It took us a little while to settle into the game, but then we started to create our first openings and find our way into the contest. That helped us realise that, although we were playing against a top side representing Germany on the international stage, there was still a chance for us. By the second half at the latest, we had turned the game and the atmosphere in the stadium in our favour. We could feel that, with passionate defending, plenty of running and a huge amount of energy, we had a real chance of getting something out of the game. Of course, we still had to weather a few more dangerous moments, but we continued to play on the front foot and look to attack. The lads could feel that. The Volksparkstadion played its part. Just as important was the impact we once again made from the bench, helping to turn the game in our favour. Especially without Rambo, that gives us a huge boost and the confidence we need to keep competing in the Bundesliga. That makes me happy. The team showed that HSV, with the way we play, can hold its own in the Bundesliga. It was a fantastic moment for all of us, and for Miro in particular.

Sebastian Hoeneß: Congratulations to HSV on today’s win. Quite a lot went our way today, particularly in the first half. Apart from that one set-piece situation, we did a very good job of preventing them from creating clear-cut chances or dangerous opportunities on the counter-attack. At the same time, we had enough chances to take the lead ourselves. Our lack of efficiency in front of goal will be a major talking point from this game. In the second half, the game opened up. Both teams had promising chances. Hamburg made the game more open and played at a high tempo, and the crossbar strike really got the crowd going. The game was wide open, both teams were dangerous, and that’s exactly what we don’t want. We did manage to regain control of the game, but we have to look at ourselves and accept that we simply cannot allow a counter-attack like that to happen.