The good thing about midweek games is that teams don’t have a lot of time to dwell on negative results before you’re in the swing of the next game. That’s the case for Hannes Wolf on the day after the 2-0 loss to Arminia Bielefeld. The coach did not linger on the topic of defeat for long. The coach was much more excited about the prospect of Thursday evening, when the last 16 of the DFB-Pokal kicks off (18:30 CET). A Hamburg journalist met up with the coach on Sunday ahead of the knockout game to discuss Bielefeld and the DFB-Pokal fixture. Hannes Wolf talks about…
… the loss to Arminia Bielefeld:
We started the game well, at least in my eyes. It could have been a performance like the one against Sandhausen. However, what happened in the 12th minute is just something we cannot let happen. The covering wasn’t good enough and so Go Sakai went into a bad position in a one-on-one and got a red card. After that the game changed radically - the first goal came straight after the dismissal. Sakai would have been able to contribute but was no longer on the pitch to help. You could see that it was actually foul play and should not have counted. Then for the second goal it was the covering in the penalty area that let us down. The task for Orel Mangala was very big, as he had to cover for the lack of Sackai at the back. These circumstances are the reason why there was so much free space for the opposition. Everything after the 12th minute was hard, then we conceded the goals. We need to improve a lot tactically. We have analysed the decisive moments and spoken with the team to ensure these mistakes don’t happen again.
“Luck plays a special role in football games, alongside technique and tactics of course.”
... the squad situation after Bielefeld and ahead of the Pokal game:
No one came out of the Bielefeld game with a serious injury. Fiete Arp is available again for Tuesday after starting on the bench due to complaints of a bad back. One player, however, who is out of the cup game on Tuesday, is Gideon Jung, who was taken off at half-time during the Bielefeld game. He had only just recovered from several months out. Berkay Özcan also picked up a knock during the game. I feared for him, because it really takes a lot to make him limp, but luckily he only bruised his foot and will probably be able to play against Nürnberg. Pierre-Michel Lasogga is still a doubt for the game due to his calf injury. Aaron Hunt and Hee-Chan Hwang will both be unavailable for the next two to three weeks. We have a few lads missing but I feel the players that are available will do the job for us.
... the excitement before the DFB-Pokal:
The Pokal is a huge competition and it’s obviously an excellent opportunity for us. We will play against a Bundesliga team, but I expect it to be a tight game that could go either way. In a game like this you need a bit of luck in order to win and go through to the next round. Luck plays a special role in football games, alongside technique and tactics of course. From the stands it may not look that way, but it is definitely noticeable from the sidelines. Especially in knockout games. We are really looking forward to the game and the whole evening. The DFB-Pokal is special and so we really want to give everything we can to win the game. It's good we have reached the round of 16, but the quarterfinals, now that would be really cool!
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