Lessons learned and ready for the challenge of Hansa Rostock

On Saturday, SV Elversberg are playing away at the Ostseestadion for the second time in the club’s history. Horst Steffen’s team still have some catching up to do after the first leg.

It was dramatic, it was painful – but it was definitely also a learning experience. The first leg and first 2. Bundesliga home game against Hansa Rostock, played at Ludwigspark in Saarbrücken, had it all. SVE were playing well and reached 1:0 ahead, before squandering a penalty kick and various other chances. 

Then the old football maxim came true: teams that fail to capitalise on opportunities will eventually fall behind. And so, Hansa Rostock were able to turn the game around in the most dramatic way late on, into extra time. A lot has happened since then: Rostock has seen a change of coach, with Mersad Selimbegović replacing Alois Schwartz. The Rostock team is in 17th place, putting them at major risk of relegation – and a 0:3 defeat in Nuremberg to kick off the second half of the season, with almost no chances on offer, did not improve things. 

‘I am looking forward to it and I hope we put in a different performance than we did against Nuremberg’, Selimbegović noted. The Bosnian said that ‘we missed a few things against FCN’. The 41-year-old is looking for his team to be more consistent against Elversberg: ‘Football is a game of two halves. There were plenty of opportunities, but we failed to seize them.’ 

Everything is going well at SVE, apart from the tense situation in the central defence: Kevin Conrad injured his medial collateral ligament in training and will be out until March, and the team will also have to manage without Marcel Correia, who has a long-term injury. Otherwise, all the players are on board – and have learned from their mistakes in the first leg and are determined to do better this time around.