When the Borussia Dortmund team sets off in the late afternoon for Hamburg, where they are set to play on Saturday against HSV (15:30 CET), Thomas Tuchel will not make mention of BVB's poor run on the Alster to the new players. He will let the longer serving players know: "It is our job to ensure that they do not turn into a long-term bogey team."

Or to ensure that a bad run ends and a good one begins. The fact is, Borussia Dortmund have won only once across the last decade when playing away in Hamburg (one win, two draws, seven defeats), but in the preceding decade, they only lost there on one occasion (in May 1997, the other results being six victories and three draws). The shoe could soon be on the other foot...

"There is no better time than tomorrow to get this monkey off our back" stressed Thomas Tuchel as such. The manager expects a battling HSV team, who will be happy to cede possession of the ball, and who will "want to force us into making errors", a not unsubtle call to arms: "We must match them for intensity in order to be able to bring our individual quality to bear upon this contest – we cannot afford to let the reverse happen." He continued: "We must play this game the way it is meant to be played, and hopefully a couple of moments of quality will make the difference." All that, to the end of the desired away win, which should serve as the inauguration of a new, more successful run at the Volkspark.
Boris Rupert

BVB total!-Video: The entire press conference with Thomas Tuchel, free for everybody