1:3 - HSV eliminated in DFB Pokal semi-final

Misfortune seldom comes alone...

Before the game, HSV coach Tim Walter had emphasised the enormous anticipation of his team for this special match - and his team started accordingly hot and committed. Driven on by the more than 50,000 frenetic HSV fans in the sold-out Volksparkstadion, the Reds demonstrated their broad chest right from the kick-off, immediately looking for the way forward and setting themselves up well twice via Jatta's right side in the first few minutes. But then the visitors, who were striving for possession and control of the game and had a good style of play, showed themselves to be ice-cold twice within seven minutes and, with their brace in the 11th and 17th minutes, gave the game a clear push in the direction in which it should not go from Hamburg's point of view. But HSV didn't let the goals by Petersen and Höfler take their edge off, on the contrary: The Rothosen pushed themselves, kept pushing and after just under half an hour created two great chances by Suhonen and Jatta, who would have deserved the equaliser. Instead, however, a VAR intervention during Hamburg's best phase suddenly made it 0:3, because Heyer and Schlotterbeck, who had slipped in the penalty area, got in each other's way. Grifo converted the subsequent penalty kick in the 35th minute, but the Walter men were still not broken by this. With the support of the fans, they simply marched on and through Suhonen they actually scored a well-deserved goal, which made the Volkspark tremble - but then the VAR called in again, and again to the disadvantage of HSV. Suhonen was just offside with one foot, so the score went into the break at 0:3. A result that this game, in which everything really went against the Rothosen, had not really produced.