Rene Adler (bottom) made some important saves as Hamburg came away from Stuttgart with a 1-0 win
Rene Adler (bottom) made some important saves as Hamburg came away from Stuttgart with a 1-0 win

Adler: "We really enjoyed it out there"

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Hamburg - Hamburger SV had another excellent performance from to thank in no small part for their 1-0 win at VfB Stuttgart on Sunday.

The former Germany No1 kept the hosts at bay with a string of excellent saves in a close-fought encounter at the Mercedes-Benz Arena and after the match, he spoke with bundesliga.com about the Red Shorts' form revival and the job in hand over the remainder of the campaign.

bundesliga.com: Rene Adler, congratulations on the 1-0 win at Stuttgart. Your coach Thorsten Fink said ahead of the game that he was looking for a clean sheet and that's exactly what he got. That must be very satisfying for you above all as the goalkeeper?

Rene Adler: For sure. We've been letting in too many goals recently so as far as that goes it was obviously a good evening's work both for me and everyone else on the team.

bundesliga.com: Hamburg's tactics seemed to come off perfectly.

Adler: Yes, the coach had told us that the longer it stayed 0-0, the better chances we'd get. Mr. Fink said we had to make the most of our opportunities when they arose and that's what we did, clinically. So our coach was right.

bundesliga.com: The first thing you did was make an excellent stop from Raphael Holzhauer's free-kick. Does a save like that set you up for the rest of the match?

Adler: Obviously it's important for a keeper to find his way into the game early, but it's not just the saves that build up your confidence. Every good distribution of the ball helps add to the feeling you could be onto a decent game. For this one, I was confident it would all work out even before kick-off.

bundesliga.com: Hamburg made a good impression as a whole. Enthusiastic, committed and really working as a team - it all seemed to slot into place...

Adler: Our spirits were high even just getting into Stuttgart. It was very cold in Hamburg, we'd been training in the snow. Down south it was a lot warmer and straight away we couldn't wait to get down to playing football. We really enjoyed it out there on the pitch but we'd been convinced all week that we could win this one.

bundesliga.com: It's a victory that takes a bit of pressure off your shoulders for the start of next week...

Adler: It's nice to start the week with a win, for sure. It creates a sense of calm, although that's not to say we'd been letting our recent patchy form get to us. We all know what this team's capable of and just told ourselves we were going to win at Stuttgart.

bundesliga.com: Next up, it's a home meeting with FC Augsburg. A manageable task?

Adler: Sounds straightforward, but it isn't. We need to be fully focused and get in a really good week's training. We're taking it a game at a time and every win helps cement our position in the top third of the table. That's the attitude we really need to take to heart right through to the end of the season.

Interview by Jens Fischer