Looking forward to a "fantastic atmosphere" - #HSVRBL press conference

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RB Leipzig

·27 February 2026

Looking forward to a "fantastic atmosphere" - #HSVRBL press conference

Ole Werner takes his RB Leipzig side up to his end of the country this Sunday, as the Red Bulls round off matchday 24 away at Hamburger SV. As usual, our head coach took questions from the media ahead of the game.

Latest team news:

Suleman Sani has been able to complete parts of team training for the first time since his injury, but he isn't an option for the HSV game due to his overall lack of training in recent weeks.
Xaver Schlager is unavailable due to an adductor injury, though he has been doing some running exercises.
Kosta Nedeljković is currently unavailable due to back problems and is working individually.
Péter Gulácsi partially tore the medial collateral ligament in his left knee against VfL Wolfsburg and is expected to sidelined until the end of March.
Assan Ouédraogo (knee tendon injury) and Viggo Gebel (ACL tear) are continuing their recovery from injury.

Latest team news

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Opponents HSV

"HSV have been very solid in recent weeks and are hard to beat. They make a lot of tactical adjustments and very flexible. We’re prepared for plenty of different scenarios, but it could also be something completely new that we have to react to. The reverse fixture was a very close game and could have gone either way. We were clinical and that got us the win, something we need to repeat this time too.Hamburg is a special place to play and the atmosphere is fantastic there. It’s great that they are back in the Bundesliga. Alongside away games like Dortmund or Cologne, this is the kind of match where you expect the most passion in the stands.We can quieten down that noise with our own performance. I can sense real excitement within our squad."

The match plan

"We’re into the final third of the season now. Of course, that’s when things start to take shape. The weather being better again benefits us all and we want to bring that fresh energy onto the pitch with us. It’s important that we stay true to ourselves and combine a good performance with a good result.We have to put in the best possible performance we're capable of and play with the same kind of ruthlessness we had before the winter break. That’s been missing lately, and it’s part of the reason we’ve got fewer points than we did in the first half of the season."

Reasons for encouragement after Dortmund

“We’re constantly adapting things. I wouldn’t say we’ve played the same way we did at the start of the season at any point. It’s not as if we aren’t getting into promising positions either. Against a deep-lying Wolfsburg side and also against Dortmund, who sat deep early on, we created plenty of chances.I think we’ve taken a huge step forward in recent games. The problem hasn’t been taking too few shots or creating too few big chances. Those are stats that are developing positively. It’s simply about turning those chances into goals and getting certain details right again.”

Lukas Klostermann's situation

“There are a number of factors behind why he hasn’t been playing as much. During my time here, Lukas has had a few spells out and he was ill again recently.On top of that, we’ve got plenty of strong alternatives at centre-back. Willi Orban and Castello Jr. are doing their jobs there very well. You don’t tend to change the players in this position all that often during games anyway.We also have El Chadaille Bitshiabu and Nici Seiwald, who can play there too. Recently we’ve simply opted for other players. But that doesn’t mean Lukas is far away.He’s a valued member of this group, and we all know what he can do."