Salihović: "We have to play with confidence”

Sali, you signed with Hamburger SV last September. Have you enjoyed your time in the North so far?

Sejad Salihović: “I was tempted to come back to the Bundesliga. I’m really enjoying my time at HSV and in Hamburg; it’s an exciting task. I try to help the team with my experience. We were in a relegation battle at Hoffenheim in the 2012-13 season and we managed to stay up in the end.”

How close is your relationship to TSG now?

Salihović: “I will never forget my time as a player at TSG and I remain thankful to the club for the opportunity last summer – it wasn’t a given. My connection to Hoffenheim has never stopped, to Alexander Rosen and Julian Nagelsmann too.”

What do you think Hoffenheim are capable of doing this season?

Salihović: “I think TSG can qualify for Europe this season. After the slight dip in form at the start of the season, the team have shown their quality again in recent games.”

HSV are in a tricky situation at the moment. You know what it’s like to be in a relegation battle. What do you think it will come down to?

Salihović: “We’ve started to play football again and work together effectively as a team in recent weeks. At the end of the day, it’s ‘simple’, as it so often is in football – we have to win our games to stay up.”

Hamburg won the reverse fixture convincingly. What are expecting from Saturday’s game in the sold-out WIRSOL Rhein-Neckar-Arena? What do you have to do to take points away from Hoffenheim?

Salihović: “We won’t make the mistake of underestimating TSG on the basis of the result in the reverse fixture. We have to play with confidence to pick up points in Hoffenheim.”

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