Match reaction

“A strong team performance with incredible togetherness”

HSV rewarded themselves with a point for a courageous display in their Bundesliga opener at Gladbach. Here is the post-match reaction.

Yussuf Poulsen: It was a very good performance from the team away from home. We’re happy with this point – it’s deserved. In the end we were even closer to winning it than Gladbach. We tried to make things difficult for them and we managed that. Defensively we were excellent, we gave them very few chances, mostly from distance. That’s something we’d already improved on in pre-season, and Gladbach felt it today – they were frustrated. We now need to sharpen our transitions in the coming weeks, but we can go into the derby on Friday with confidence, which also has the potential to be a great game. The fans were already getting us in the mood for it straight after the final whistle, which I really enjoyed. What our fans produce, away or at home, is unique.

Nicolas Capaldo: This point is important. It always feels good to pick something up away from home. We stuck together really well as a team, everyone supported each other and put in a real shift. Matches like this can always be decided late on, and with a bit more luck we could have grabbed the winner. Of course, now we’re all looking forward to the derby – they’re always something special. It’s an incredibly important game.

Miro Muheim: It was a brilliant first game. It was a strong team performance with incredible togetherness. We defended superbly and at the end we even had the chance to take all three points. The excitement beforehand was huge. We’ve worked so hard for this moment. I want to thank the fans, who created an unbelievable atmosphere. Now we’re looking forward to our first Bundesliga game at home.

Daniel Heuer Fernandes: It feels good because of the way we played today. We had a clear plan and stuck to it for 90 minutes. We knew Gladbach would have a lot of quality in the middle of the pitch, so it was vital to keep our lines compact – and we did that well. At the same time, we wanted to be brave, as we showed in the first ten minutes, and we had our moments going forward too.

Daniel Elfadli: For me it was my first Bundesliga game and it just felt great. It was a very special moment walking out and even during the warm-up. Overall, we defended really well and stayed patient. That meant we had chances of our own late on and were in the final third more often than them. We can now believe in ourselves even more. We showed today that we’re a good team and one to be reckoned with. We have a lot of new players and still need to develop our patterns. We’ve learned from pre-season, played well today and earned our point.

"Today showed clearly that we’re ready for the Bundesliga adventure and the challenges ahead"

Merlin Polzin: It was great to see how the team took steps forward over the past weeks and showed that today. We were very happy with the way we started, with some good ball recoveries and quick attacks. I also liked the passion we defended with. I’m very proud of the boys – they’ve shown fantastic energy and openness throughout pre-season. Today showed clearly that we’re ready for the Bundesliga adventure and the challenges ahead. We knew Gladbach had quality with the ball, depth and movement. But time and again we managed to close the right spaces better and better as the game went on.

Gerardo Seoane: Congratulations to HSV on the point on their Bundesliga comeback. It’s good to have the club back. As for the game, I’m satisfied with a lot of aspects, especially our defensive organisation. We were very focused and controlled in defending against counters, which was important. That gave us confidence for large parts of the game. We found it difficult to break down their compact shape and didn’t create enough clear chances. A draw was a fair result.