“Disappointed but developing”: Hamburger SV reflect on away draw with Union Berlin

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It took a sensational penalty save by Heuer Fernandes and a resolute defensive performance, but Hamburger SV earned a vital point in a tense affair goalless draw away at Union Berlin.

It is still early days, but Hamburger SV players and management believe it is a sign of their development.

Penalty hero, Heuer Fernandes could not hide his delight at full-time, telling the media that his defence did well to stifle the strong Union attackers.

“I’m happy that I was able to save the penalty, because it would have been tough to fall behind early on against a team like Union. We were then able to control the game and had a lot of possession, but unfortunately without creating any really big chances, even though you always felt like something was going to happen.”

It feels good to have given so little away, had some opportunities ourselves and picked up a point against a team as strong and physical as Union, especially as we knew that their powerful forwards don’t need many chances to score. We dealt with that well.”

Lacking the clinical touch

Nicolai Remberg put in a disciplined, if not creative, performance in the centre of midfield for Hamburger SV, but felt that something is still missing up front:

“We played really well in the first half and had lots of good attacks where we made promising runs at the defence, but unfortunately we were just lacking that final decisive pass. We’re doing well going forward, but we simply should have scored a goal today. A point here at this stadium is okay in principle, but we could have come away with more today. It’s almost a little bit disappointing that we’ve only got the one point in the end. Still, we’ve picked up five points from five matches and shown that we’re definitely travelling in the right direction.”

“We deserved more”

Swiss midfielder, Miro Muheim was more positive about the performance in defence and attack:

“That was a very good team performance. We gave very little away defensively apart from the penalty kick, and Ferro of course saved that superbly. Other than that, we were very solid and defended compactly. We created some good chances too, but sadly we didn’t take them. That’s why we’re slightly disappointed that we couldn’t get the three points. We would definitely have deserved an away win.”

A Point Gained

HSV Head Coach, Merlin Polzin was equally effusive about his sides performance and saw the trip as a point gained, rather than three points lost:

“We started the game well apart from the penalty incident. We have to thank Ferro for keeping us in the game. He saved the spot kick brilliantly. The reaction to that was also great, with all the players coming together. By that point, we had definitely arrived in the game.

“I saw a very focused first-half performance from us when we had the ball. We managed to exploit the space and made it difficult for the opponents to pick up our players. We could have played out one or two chances better than we did. We knew that, as the game went on, the power of the Alte Försterei could come back and play a part. We dealt with that well, and you could say that we became more and more of a team unit. I’m more than satisfied with the performance and we’ll take the point with us.”

Overall, HSV can be hopeful about their development.

The goalless draw stemmed a tide that had seen them concede 11 goals in their previous four games, but scoring remains an issue.

HSV have managed just two goals so far this season, a Bundesliga low, and they will now look to build on this performance against Mainz 05 next week.

GGFN | Oscar O’Mara