FC St. Pauli

Fabian Hürzeler on…

...dealing with his first defeat as head coach: “I noticed that I’m not so good at dealing with defeats. The task now is to convert the anger over the defeat into positive energy and positive emotions. I feel positive and told the players that yesterday. It’s about continuing to have confidence in our own strengths. The players have done a lot of things right and will do a lot of things right on Friday.”

...whether the ailing Eric Smith will play: “The trend is positive.”

...his first derby as head coach: “I experienced several derbies as a player in Munich. They were always something special when the stadium was full and the two sets of fans, who are not exactly friends, came together. It will definitely be an interesting game that will electrify the masses. You can feel the buzz building around the city. I’m still quite calm in myself but I can’t say how it will be on Friday.”

...emotions: “They’re a part of it, but too many isn’t good. Clarity of mind will be a big factor. We want to play football and not do any wild stuff. The emotions will come automatically, but it will be important for us to play good, structured football. I won’t put the brakes on anyone. It’s important we go into the game together. Togetherness and compactness are important. That the players know they can trust one another completely. That’s been a source of our strength in the second half of the season. The players are in a position to cope with games like these and difficult phases and play courageous football. Because they can trust one another and there’s someone alongside them they can rely on. That’s what makes us strong, and I hope we’ll benefit from that again on Friday.”

...our local rivals: “HSV have loads of individual quality in every department. They like to come at you with footballing elements and are excellent in transition. On the flanks they have good one-against-one players and lots of pace. They also have a footballing goalkeeper who is extremely good on the ball. In attack, they’re capable of mounting a massive goal threat. They do allow some opportunities in defence, which is obviously a chance for us.”

...the pressure on both clubs: “It’s there on both sides. I can’t say who’s feeling it more. We’re an ambitious club who want to achieve our targets, so I can’t say we’ll go into the game with a sense of freedom and wait and see what happens. Our players are eager, they’re ambitious and they want to achieve things, so there’s pressure on our side, too.”

...our own style of play: “It’s important for us to be compact and courageous again. In recent games we’ve seen that teams who have been courageous have made things very difficult for HSV and been able to get a result. Our premise, therefore, is that we want to be courageous as well. We don’t just want to defend and work off the ball, we want to have the ball and try to impose our game, obviously in the knowledge that HSV can cause us problems with one action. It’s therefore important to have an overload near the ball and defend well as a unit. A lot of teams have pressed us high up the field in the second half of the and we’ve been able to find lots of good solutions. It’ll be important for us to play out courageously from the back and not just hit long balls and try to win the second balls. The focus during the week has been on finding footballing solutions. Our aim against HSV will again be to consciously want the ball to be able to act. We want to be active not passive and are going there to win the game.”

Photos: Witters