Post match report

That was a great team performance

HSV pulled off a well deserved 3-0 victory at home over TSG 1899 Hoffenheim on Bundesliga matchday 13. Hamburg players and coaches alike were clearly very happy with how they played. Catch all the reaction to the game here.

You could make the argument for any one of the Rothosen being deserving of the “Man of the Match” award. At the back, Kyriakos Papadopoulos and Mergim Mavraj cleaned up everything that Hoffenheim threw at them. Douglas Santos and Dennis Diekmaier were both courageous on the wings and both provided assists. Defensive midfielders Gideon Jung and Go Sakai were brilliant in all aspects, with Jung even getting on the scoresheet. And the attacking force of Filip Kostic, Aaron Hunt, Bobby Wood and Fiete Arp pressed their opponents well in the final third and created numerous chances. Last but not least, Christian Mathenia was able to deal with everything that Hoffenheim could throw at him. So it’s no wonder that the “Man of the Match” award has to be given to every single player on the pitch who contributed to Hamburg’s best ever performance of the season. HSV.de spoke to the players after the game at the Volksparkstadion, who were clearly very happy, but also made sure to keep their feet firmly on the ground.

Bobby Wood: I wasn’t that surprised to not have been playing recently. We were underperforming and the coach had to make a change. I didn’t let it get to me and I stayed positive. I obviously always want to be playing, but you have to put in good performances and at the end of the day, we’re all in the same boat. It’s not all about me; it’s about the team and the club. We played extremely well today, pressed them relentlessly and didn’t let it up in the second half. We knew that Hoffenheim have played a lot of games recently, so we kept on pressing them to tire them out and force the first goal. It was a great team performance.

Filip Kostic played a role in all three goals in what was one of his best performances in a HSV shirt.

Filip Kostic: It was an important win for us today. I’m really happy with my performance and the fact that I got my first ever goal from a free-kick for HSV. I noticed that the players in the wall left a few gaps, so I utilised that and just shot it through. I hit it perfectly. At the end of it all though, the team and our collective success is the most important thing. We played well and above all fought together as a team. Now we have to turn our focus to our upcoming games and replicate the performance that we put in today.

Gotoku Sakai: Every player played extremely well today. Bobby adapted to an unfamiliar position and did so admirably. That’s a great sign and I’m really happy for him. I tried to play more aggressively and quickly going forward by taking a couple of touches and then looking for Fiete up front. He lead the line again and his hold up play was very good. We got together as a team over the last few weeks and picked out a few things that we had to do better. We managed to do that today.

Fiete Arp: It was a fantastic game. We played directly and managed to play the way we set out to before the game. Bobby and I complimented each other well today. With him, we have a second player that can get on to balls in the final third. I’m trying to just enjoy myself as much as I can at the moment when I play. On top of that, I’m trying to get to grips with this level of football, which the boys have been really helpful with. The Bundesliga is played at a lightning quick pace and the central defenders today have 300 games on their Bundesliga CV collectively. On top of all this, balancing football and school together is tiring. But the feeling you get from winning two home games, that’s enough motivation to keep on going.

Fiete Arp put in another good performance and left the field to a standing ovation.

Mergim Mavraj: It is great to get back to winning ways once again and especially to win with such a courageous performance from the whole team. We played with the same strength and fight today that we showed to secure our survival last season. It was a similar game today against Hoffenheim as the one against them six months ago. The way we went about our game today was really good, you could see that from the very start of the match. We weren’t as alert as we should’ve been in the opening stages but the way we got the ball away in the nick of time and then grew into the game as a team – you could see that we really wanted to win today. The early goal helped us a lot. We saw early on that the gameplan that the boss had set out for us was working well and so it was purely a question of waiting until we could make the most of our chances. We’ll have to wait until after the Freiburg match to see how much of an effect this win has on the table. If we can win that one it would give us more of an idea about the table.

Vice captain Kyriakos Papadopoulos spoke about a game that was "a show of our character."

Kyriakos Papadopoulos: We are good at home. The Volksparkstadion has been a fortress for us for a long time, with our fans spurring us on. Even if we lose, we always play well at home. Today it was a big win, a show of our character. We prepared well for the game and we wanted to win it badly. And we did it. We closed down well and we worked well as a team. It is great and also really important that we finally kept a clean sheet once again. Now we have to keep it up for the Freiburg match, it will be a tough task. We need to prepare well over the coming days.

Markus Gisdol: I think it was a really interesting game today. We managed, for the majority of the game, to not allow them too much space; we closed down the gaps well and pressed high. We had the clearer goalscoring chances in the game, I think. We weren’t able to double our lead earlier on even though we had lots of chances to do so. But then we had that stroke of luck to get the second goal from that free-kick. The third goal maybe doesn’t reflect the way the game went but we definitely deserved the victory. The win is good for us because we have often said recently that we played well but then we weren’t getting the points to show for our performances. Today we found the balance between a good performance and getting the three points too. It was a great game for the team today because it was a proper team performance.