Jonas Meffert and the relegation is not a success story so far. The 27-year-old has twice missed promotion to the Bundesliga despite good starting positions. In 2015 Meffert lost the second leg with Karlsruhe after the 1-1 draw at HSV 1-2 after extra time, last year the 1-0 in Cologne was followed by a bitter 5-1 defeat with Holstein Kiel.
Now Meffert is back in the lead with HSV in the relegation, but the midfielder doesn’t want to hear about a déjà vu before the second leg on Monday evening (8.30 p.m., in the NDR Livecenter): “You can’t compare that at all. It was with Kiel back then 1-0 in Cologne happy. FC had a lot of good chances. It’s a different situation this time.”
Ex-goalkeeper Golz sees HSV at an advantage
In fact: After the extremely strong final sprint in the second division with five wins in a row, HSV caught up a deficit of seven points and managed third place in the table, which was hardly considered possible at the beginning of April. Hertha, on the other hand, seemed already saved and slipped down to the relegation place on the last day of the Bundesliga match. “The trend is your friend,” said ex-HSV goalkeeper Richard Golz in an interview with NDR. “You saw in the first leg that Hertha had a lot to lose and that it was a burden for the players. They seemed very paralyzed to me.”
“I would wish Felix Magath to be successful, but not against HSV.”
— Ex-HSV goalkeeper Richard Golz
Hertha coach Felix Magath disagrees and sees the situation psychologically in favor of the Berliners: “At the moment we are out and can only win. Now HSV has something to lose,” explained the 68-year-old, for whom the relegation duels are like European cup games feel: “There are so many examples in football of making up for deficits after the first game.”