“Our focus is only on Eintracht Braunschweig”

With the 2024/25 2. Bundesliga season slowly coming to a close, HSV will host Eintracht Braunschweig on matchday 29 (18:30 CEST). One look at the table shows which side will be expected to win on Friday night, with the Rothosen on top of the pile and the visitors currently in 16th and fighting for survival. However, HSV lost the reverse fixture 3-1 and Friday’s opponents also defeated Paderborn 3-2 in their last match. As a result, Merlin Polzin and his coaching team are well aware that Friday’s clash will be anything but a walk in the park. The HSV head coach has demanded full focus from his players in training this week, as he also looks to keep their feet on the ground despite the general euphoria surrounding the club’s form right now. The Hamburg-born coach spoke in detail at today’s press conference about…​​​​​​​

…the squad: Aboubaka Soumahoro, Bakery Jatta and Noah Katterbach are all doing rehabilitative training and are making progress on their road to recovery. Ludovit Reis, Nicolas Oliveira and Mario Vuskovic are all unavailable this weekend. Matheo Raab, however, is back in team training. He’s looked really good and is enjoying himself too. Jonas Meffert and Davie Selke, who missed the Nürnberg game due to injury, are also back and in full training.

…a possible Jonas Meffert appearance: The most important thing is how he feels wearing the mask and whether or not it impacts his performance. He obviously needs to have no issues with it if he’s to play to his best. There therefore may be changes made to his mask, we’re speaking to our medical team about it. If ‘Meffo’ is fit and available, he’s a key player in the way we want to play football. His performances also make him a leader within the team. We want him on the pitch on Friday, but only if he’s comfortable wearing the mask.

"We want to get the fans on their feet from the very first minute"

...opponents Eintracht Braunschweig: None of us have forgotten the reverse fixture. We came up against a team that did everything we failed to do. We are therefore fully aware of what they are capable of. Braunschweig defend with a compact back-five and often find the right mix between defending deep and putting pressure on their opponents high up the pitch. At the same time, they can be really dangerous from counter-attacks with the pace players like Philippe and Tachie possess. On top of that, some of their players have a really strong mentality, such as Tempelmann and Köhler. We want to put things right from earlier this season in front of a full Volksparkstadion. We’re really looking forward to Friday’s game. We want to get the fans on their feet from the very first minute and take all three points by playing our brand of football.

...the final few weeks of the season: We know we’re approaching the end of the season and that every point will help us achieve our target of promotion. There’s no point in dreaming about ideal situations or results. We’re all happy about our position in the table but are fully aware of what we’ve done to get there. We all know what we stand for as a team and we won’t change that or take our foot off the gas because we think we’ve already achieved something. Our focus is only on Eintracht Braunschweig and not next week.