Trainer Tim Walter from Hamburger SV pleads for the abolition of the relegation before the promotion duel with VfB Stuttgart.
“Because the first division team has more to win. Because they still have the opportunity to hold on to the league in sixteenth place over two games,” said the 47-year-old before the first leg in Stuttgart at his former club on Thursday (8:45 p.m./ Sat.1 and Sky).
The third in the second division, “who has won a lot throughout the year”, on the other hand, “does not automatically make the way up,” added Walter critically. That’s why you have to “think about the abolition, that’s very clear”.
Nevertheless, he is optimistic about the two finals. “We didn’t get promoted directly as third, but we have the chance to get promoted. And this chance makes us happy, we’re very happy about it.” And: “Now we want to crown ourselves by making it in the two finals.”
HSV motto is “Now more than ever”
The bankruptcy from the previous year, when HSV failed in detention at Hertha BSC, and the drama about the almost promotion in the long-distance duel with 1. FC Heidenheim they ticked off in Hamburg.
“In terms of feeling, everything was there from top to bottom last Sunday,” said Walter: “But we talked about it with the team and held it together: now even more so!”
Since the reintroduction of relegation in 2009, the second division team has only made it into the Bundesliga three times. The former Bundesliga Dino HSV also benefited twice – in 2014 and 2015 the Hanseatic League prevented relegation.