SVWW narrow defeat to Champions in season finale
Pros |
SV Wehen Wiesbaden have an "incredibly difficult game coming up" at the weekend. Rüdiger Rehm's charges will take on Hamburger SV at the Volksparkstadion at 13:30 CET on Sunday 31 May. We have summarised the most important statements made by the SVWW head coach at Friday morning's virtual press conference for you below.
Personnel matters: The Red & Blacks will be without the suspended duo of Maximilian Dittgen and Tobias Schwede in Hamburg. Stefan Aigner has now served his one-game ban and is available again. "We'll find a solution," said Rehm, when asked who might replace Dittgen and Schwede in the starting XI. As for captain Sebastian Mrowca, it will be a case of monitoring the player in the lead-up to the game on Sunday.
Scenario: The home defeat to SV Sandhausen in midweek hurt SVWW, explained Rehm at the press conference. The Red & Blacks narrowly lost 1-0 and were defeated by a goal from a set-piece – as was the case in Heidenheim a few days earlier. "We're lacking penetration going forward at the moment. We do have opportunities, but not in the amount that we would like." In addition, Rehm believes his team have not been managing to get the better of their opponents in the key duels. "If that happens, you have very little chance to win in football." He went on to add: "We lost the fight on Tuesday. It was a battle, but it's not all over yet. We now need to embrace the next one."
Outlook: Having lost two games on the bounce, the Red & Blacks need to return to winning ways and pick up some points. Self-criticism alone will not suffice, according to Rehm, who continued: "We need to deliver!" Conviction, penetration and consistency will be needed on Sunday lunchtime. "We can take courage from producing performances like the one against Stuttgart." In their meeting, both HSV and SVWW will be wanting to show a reaction to what happened in the last round of fixtures. "We've demonstrated that we can always bounce back. We're all fighting for the same thing; we now need to show that in the duels on the pitch."
Opposition: Hamburger SV only played their Matchday 28 fixture on Thursday evening. They initially went 2-0 up against VfB Stuttgart but then squandered their lead and lost 3-2 in stoppage time. "Hamburg used up a lot of energy and had to cover a lot of ground. That's obviously tough for them," said the SVWW coach. The last-minute defeat saw Stuttgart leapfrog HSV into second place in the Bundesliga 2 table. Dieter Hecking's team subsequently dropped down to third position and are now only one point ahead of 1. FC Heidenheim.
Man of the Match: As always, you have the opportunity to vote for your Man of the Match. Simply cast your vote in the Match Center on the SVWW website anytime between kick-off and midnight on the day of the game and win a shirt signed by the Man of the Match!