08.12.2018

Desire and humility key in the win

A day after the 1-0 home win over SC Paderborn, head coach Hannes Wolf discussed the run of wins and how the side now needs to focus on the next few games.

Review

The mood will be good for all of the HSV players. After a 1-0 win in the final home game of the calendar year, the players will now be more than happy to pay a visit to various HSV fan clubs across the country. The 1-0 win will have ensured the players will be thinking positively and that they are also still top of the 2. Bundesliga. A concentrated team performance and sensational support from the home fans were the two biggest factors in the success. Despite some typically drab weather in Hamburg, around 50,000 fans still got behind their team in the Volksparkstadion. The fans came hoping to see a home win and got their wish thanks to Khaled Narey’s eleventh minute strike. The rest of the game was somewhat entertaining, with HSV the more dominant outfit. Had the hosts taken more chances, the scoreline would have deservedly been more convincing. Nonetheless, HSV saw the game out and will visit their respective fan clubs having won 34 points from 16 league games so far. This strong record is mainly down to the fact that the team is now unbeaten in ten league games. As a result, Hannes Wolf was very satisfied after the game, but he was still keen to stress that there are still two important matches to play before the winter break. The boss spoke

about…

… his thoughts after three home games as HSV head coach:

It was a nice evening yesterday in my third home game. Mind you, we have two difficult games coming up. It was emotional yesterday and we were glad, but we have to stay on track now.

… the hard-fought victory:

We’ve won a lot of games recently and that’s important. I didn’t think for a second that it’d be easy. Obviously we want to play better, but if you don’t take your chances then there’s always a risk that you won’t win the game. We stayed focussed. If I could have decided, I would’ve rather won 3-0, but it’s not that easy.

… Bakery Jatta’s role:

He earned his chance because of his substitute appearances and training. I’m happy when players develop well. He played well. I try to help him, but he helps himself too. Now it’s about carrying on working hard. All in all, he’s on the right track.

… the next steps going forward:

We want to work just as hard going forward, be compact, and defend. The next step is keeping the groundwork and building on it. We have to avoid the mistake of going forward and losing our groundwork. We want to improve our attacks and stay strong. If we lose even five percent, then we won’t be winning our games anymore.

No show from HSV

HSV head coach Markus Gisdol was forced into changing his team ahead of the trip south. Long term injured first choice keeper Adler was still recovering from a broken rib before his understudy Mathenia also got injured and was ruled out of the matchday 31 encounter. Up stepped under-21 stopper Mikel to the fray. Key winger Kostic who scored the only goal of the game between the two sides on matchday 14 was suspended so his place went to Austrian Gregoritsch. Ostrzolek got the nod at left back ahead of Douglas Santos while Walace replaced Jung in defensive midfield. Gisdol made four changes in all to the side which lost 1-2 at home to relegation certainties Darmstadt last time out. The new-look formation struggled early on. Augsburg created three top scoring opportunities within the opening 20 minutes. New keeper Mikel managed to keep out efforts by Kohr and Schmid and was grateful to be able to watch a Stafylidis free kick fizz narrowly wide of target. On 22 minutes the visitors were in luck again as an Altintop effort struck the left hand post with Mikel beaten. It seemed to the capacity crowd including yet another sold out contingent of travelling HSV faithful that it weould only be a matter of time before the home side would break the deadlock and they did as Altintop rounded off two counter attacks on 28 and 41 minutes to make the halftime score 2-0 to Augsburg. Mickel was powerless on both occasions and was HSV’s best man before the break.

Deserved defeat

Lasogga came on for Gregoritsch and Jung replaced Walace at the start of the second half as Gisdol opted for a two-pronged attack. Later Jatta replaced Ostrzolek. The ploy simply didn’t work as the Rothosen had more of the ball than in the previous half but were completely harmless in front of goal. Augsburg played a much more intelligent game and struck the woodwork again through Baier. That superior intelligence was underlined late on as Augsburg struck twice through Max and substitute Bobadilla (76., 85.). It was game over for HSV who failed to threaten until the 84th minute for Lasogga and Wood to miss chances. It was simply not good enough and the Rothosen remain just one point above the relegation play off spot in the table. Matchday 22 sees Gisdol and Co. host Mainz who are level on points but two places better due to a superior goal difference. Only a win will do as the teams lock horns at the Volksparkstadion in Hamburg next Sunday (07.05.17, 3.30 PM).

Match details:

FC Augsburg:

Hitz - Verhaegh, Gouweleeuw, Hinteregger, Stafylidis - Kohr, D. Baier (88. Callsen-Bracker) - Schmid, Halil Altintop (80. Bobadilla), Max (87. Ji) - Finnbogason

HSV:

Mickel - Diekmeier, K. Papadopoulos, Mavraj, Ostrzolek (63. Jatta) - Sakai, Walace (46. Jung) - Gregoritsch (46. Lasogga), Holtby, Hunt - Wood

Goals:

1:0 Altintop (28.), 2:0 Altintop (41.), 3:0 Max (76.), 4:0 Bobadilla (85.)

Booked:

Baier (48.) / Mavraj (33.), Gregoritsch (44.), Ostrzolek (51.), Holtby (72.)

Referee:

Manuel Gräfe (Berlin)

Att:

30.660 (sold out)