Sejad Salihovic: “We have gained an extra portion of confidence”

Hello Sejad. For the first time in your Bundesliga career, you've managed to score ten goals in one season. Are you thankful for Kevin and Roberto, who have won so many penalties this season?

Sejad Salihovic: (laughs) We have been awarded a lot of penalties this season, that's true. However, as far as I can remember, they were all justified. That's a result of our style of play. We are all attack-minded. We attack from the start and know that it's one of our big strengths. Therefore we spend a lot time in the opponent's danger zone. Having scored ten goals this season is a nice by-product of this. I've played for this club for some time now and it's always been a target of mine, so now I'm happy to have achieved it.

Your free kicks aren't too bad either. You are now the record holder amongst current Bundesliga players. Can you share your secret with us?

Salihovic: There is no secret, although I do get asked about it every now and then. I've always had a certain talent for dead-ball situations and have invested a lot of practice into these. By doing so, I've developed a technique that appears to be quite successful during set-pieces. Train hard and you will be rewarded.

The goal against FC Bayern was your 43rd goal for 1899 in the Bundesliga. You are now the club's all-time record goalscorer together with Vedad Ibisevic. Does that make you a bit proud?

Salihovic: Only last week someone told me that I had scored 42 goals. It's something that I remembered and it's a nice thing to have achieved. But I've been in this club so long, it would be kind of poor if I wasn't at least amongst the top 5 (laughs). I still have six games this season to score the 44th goal. Who knows, maybe we'll get awarded another penalty…

Your next opponent is Hertha, the club you began your career at. You scored two goals against them earlier this season, but still lost (3-2). What makes you confident for the game on Sunday?

Salihovic: It's quite simple: We have to put in a similar performance to our last games. We will show our confidence and play to our limits again. If we do that, we can get a result from Berlin. Another aspect that might play into our hands is the fact that Hertha are under pressure. They've only collected eight points in the second half of the season, which surely isn't ideal.

You managed to record seven points from three games last week. How does the preparation for a game change after such a successful week?

Salihovic: The atmosphere in the changing room was already quite good – but it's true that last week it was even better. We have gained even more confidence through our hard work. The fact that we managed to get results against strong teams like Leverkusen and Bayern also increases our confidence. We hope that we can continue this confidence on the pitch in the upcoming games.

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