"We came out deserved winners"

On a cold night in the Volksparkstadion, the snow created an unusual setting for Hamburger SV’s opening match of 2019. However, 36,000 HSV fans were in attendance to help cheer the Rothosen to a winning start for the year. Hannes Wolf’s side made a strong start to the match but were unable to capitalise on their early dominance, missing a couple of good chances. Nevertheless, the hosts were able to secure a narrow victory. After all, a win is a win! Here are the post match thoughts of the players:

Gideon Jung: It was a lot of fun and there were a lot of battles up and down the pitch. We did a lot of good things but Sandhausen also demanded a lot from us. Of course we didn’t score enough goals over the course of the match. However, it was important that we still won the match. We always believed in ourselves and you could see this at the end of the match. We came out deserved winners.

Rick van Drongelen: We completely dominated the first half. For large periods, we searched for the right moment to play the ball into space and we were often successful. Unfortunately, we couldn’t reward ourselves for our dominance. Playing with Gideon again was great. I’m pleased we have him back in the squad. Each match is another step towards our goal and we want to end the season exactly where we are now.

Pierre-Michel Lasogga: I believe the scoreline doesn’t show how dominant we were in the match. We took the lead at the end of the first half to finally make the breakthrough. We went in search of a second goal after half-time but conceded out of nothing. After their equaliser, we started to attack once more and rewarded ourselves for a dominant performance. We started the match well and want to carry this into further matches.

Berkay Özcan: It was a super feeling to make my debut for HSV. It was even better as we managed to secure victory. We created enough chances to score in the first-half but were only able to take omne of them. Suddenly, Sandhausen equalised and we had to react. Luckily, we scored again to go back in front. I want to get to know the team better over the forthcoming days.
Photo 2: “Luckily, Pierre-Michel showed once again how good he is in front of goal,” said a pleased Hannes Wolf on Pierre-Michel Lasogga’s goals.

Hannes Wolf: We played well in the first-half but were lacking the first action, final pass or final shot necessary to make our dominance count. Our second half performance wasn’t as clean and the match turned into a tight contest. As so often happens in a tight match, we then conceded through a penalty. Luckily, Pierre-Michel showed once again how good he is in front of goal and we went on to secure all three points. It is never easy to win your first match of the year following weeks of preparation. The one thing we have to improve on from today’s performance is taking more of our chances in front of goal.

Uwe Koschinat: HSV fully deserved to win tonight and congratulations to them for the victory. We made a huge mistake of sitting too deep in the first half. We didn’t take the match into our own hands. HSV created several chances to score and we needed a strong performance in goal to keep a clean sheet. Unfortunately, the turning point in the match came just before half-time when we conceded. We played better in the second half and equalised but HSV quickly responded. We still had hope in the closing stages of taking a point courtesy of a lucking punch but that would’ve been undeserved. Defeating HSV is not our aim or benchmark as they possess so much quality.