“Have a laugh”: Why HSV’s win brought relief more than joy | OneFootball

You could see how much the 2-1 win over 1. FC Köln meant to the HSV players. That significance, however, showed itself more in sheer relief than in genuine joy.

After the final whistle, the Rothosen first had to take a deep breath before gathering in a team huddle and then thanking the fans. Captain Nicolai Remberg later summed up the mood among the HSV stars perfectly: “I had to tell the guys, ‘Come on, smile a little,’ because everyone first had to come down from the tension.”

No wonder: after a botched start to the season, including two straight 0-5 defeats, Hamburg were under considerable pressure ahead of the home game against Köln. Another loss would have completed the disastrous start and, on top of that, sent the entire club into an uncomfortable three-week international break.

Photo: IMAGO

An HSV defeat “would have been a real blow”

“If we had lost that, it wouldn’t have been the end of the world yet, but it would have been a real blow,” Remberg also knew, confirming that they had “definitely felt” the enormous pressure for a result. That made him all the prouder of his teammates: “It’s not something you can take for granted, winning a game like that.”

Indeed, HSV will likely be hoping that this moment of success was exactly what the largely newly assembled team needed in order to finally come together. Added to that: Even though HSV have to do without nine players during the current international break, many players who were recently carrying knocks or were signed late are still at the Volkspark. Merlin Polzin and his coaching staff will therefore want to make the best possible use of the break from matches.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.