“Hot heart” and “very, very cool and objective head” – that’s how coach Tim Walter from Hamburger SV goes into the emotional city derby at FC St. Pauli (6:30 p.m.).
And the 48-year-old also calls on both fan camps to be prudent before the second division clash between the league leaders and their first pursuers, which is classified as a high-risk game.
“Despite all the emotion and explosiveness of this game, it is everyone’s responsibility to appeal to common sense,” said Walter: “Ultimately it’s about sport, so everyone should support sport and let the surroundings be the surroundings.”
Like the two teams, the police have also prepared for the evening, Hamburg’s police chief Falk Schnabel appealed to the clubs’ supporters in advance on NDR: “There are no lawless spaces in stadiums either. And when the police carry out a measure, it is an urgent one Please: Let’s do the same.”
Last year there were violent clashes before the game between the two arch-rivals at the Millerntor during the HSV fan march, and this time too the core of the HSV supporters want to march together from the fish market on the Elbe to the stadium.
“In a derby it’s about leaving everything on the pitch and still staying cool,” said Walter: “That’s our job, that’s our job.”