Hamburger SV vs. Hoffenheim preview: Can HSV end five-game winless run?

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·24 April 2026

Hamburger SV vs. Hoffenheim preview: Can HSV end five-game winless run?

Hamburger SV

With four games left to play, Merlin Polzin's side are sitting in 14th spot and five points above the bottom three. While they boast a healthy cushion to the danger zone, HSV still have work to do to preserve their Bundesliga status, especially as they have found points hard to come by in recent times. In fact, Hamburg have lost three of their previous four matches, including back-to-back defeats against Stuttgart and Werder Bremen.

After falling to a heavy 4-0 loss at the MHPArena, Hamburg’s defence experienced another tough outing in last weekend’s trip to the Weserstadion. Robert Glatzel’s first-half effort proved fruitless as HSV slumped to a 3-1 loss against Bremen in a game that saw Philip Otele dismissed with over 10 minutes left to play.

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They will now return home to the Volksparkstadion, where they have taken just two points from four games since beating Union Berlin 4-2 in the middle of February. They can at least take some confidence from the fact they have won their last two home games against Hoffenheim, although plenty of time has passed since those two victories in 2017.

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Hamburg are without the injured quartet of Luka VuškovićMiro Muheim, Fernando Dickes and Yussuf Poulsen. Meanwhile, Otele will serve a ban after being sent off last weekend.

Predicted lineup: Fernandes; Capaldo, Torunarigha, Omari; Jatta, Remberg, Vieira, Grønbæk, Mikelbrencis; Glatzel, Königsdörffer

Hoffenheim

While Hamburg are battling to stay, Hoffenheim are in a battle to secure Champions League qualification. Having collected 54 points from 30 games, Christian Ilzer’s side are sitting in fifth spot and two points adrift of fourth-placed Stuttgart. There is a possibility that a top-five finish could be enough to secure Champions League qualification, but with Germany battling with Spain for the extra qualification spot, Hoffenheim will be desperate to remove all doubt by finishing in the top four for the first time since 2017-18.

Die Kraichgauer will head into matchday 31 in high spirits after they ended a four-game winless run with a dramatic 2-1 home victory over Borussia Dortmund last weekend. Hoffenheim thought they had missed out on all three points when Serhou Guirassy netted an 87th-minute equaliser to cancel out Andrej Kramarić’s first-half penalty. As it proved, there was still time left for Kramarić to dispatch his second spot-kick of the game, sealing Hoffenheim’s first home win over Borussia Dortmund since December 2019.