Bayer 04 Women ‘won’t lose sight of our goals’ as HSV visit

Coach Roberto Pätzold is hoping for a “positive home experience” against the 12th-placed visitors and knows “we have a big chance to move closer to our rivals, but we need to take the energy from the cup tie [1-0 loss at Bayern Munich]. We want to start a new run of results and get the maximum amount of points up to the international break, even though we’ve got some tough games ahead”. The Werkself go into the weekend fifth in the table with 13 points from eight games.

Familiar faces

Although HSV only have six points on the board, the Bayer 04 coach is aware of the dangers posed by a team that includes five former Leverkusen players in captain Pauline Machtens, goalkeeper Laura Sieger, Sylwia Matysik, Paulina Bartz and Nikola Karczewska. “The league has showed that everyone is capable of competing against almost anyone on an equal footing. We’ve suffered a little setback of late and now need to show we won’t lose sight of our goals.”

Having lost 2-0 at Nürnberg, the Werkself were then eliminated from the DFB Pokal last weekend despite a decent showing in Munich. “We need to lower our rate of mistakes, starting with our positioning, orientation and quicker ball circulation to make it harder for the opposition to get to grips,” Pätzold explained of lessons from the Nürnberg defeat. “We also need to improve in terms of our precision and decision-making so we face fewer transitions. Focus has also been on communication in facing up to the opponent, having covering defenders and shoring up against counters, so we can anticipate when things might get dangerous. We took a big step forward in that regard in Munich, meaning we didn’t concede from open play.”

Pätzold: ‘Move the ball and opponent’

However, Pätzold is expecting a very different sort of game against Hamburg: “They’ve scored and conceded a lot lately, so don’t mind an open game. They have a good attack and like to take risks. The challenge for us is to keep that under control and be dominant. We need to put in a lot for that to move the ball and the opponent, keep playing into the dangerous areas and take advantage of HSV’s defensive weaknesses. At the same time, we need patience and understanding on the ball, which we didn’t manage as well in Munich. But if we do what we did there in terms of running and mentality, then it’ll be tough for the opposition.”

Trio set to return

Pätzold will likely also have more players available to him, as Natasha Kowalski (match fitness), Loreen Bender and Vanessa Fudalla (both ill) are all options to be involved again. Paulina Tomasiak (match fitness), Sana Coskun (muscular), Melissa Friedrich (ill) and Amy Wrigge (ACL) are still sidelined.