FIRST TEAM
05/19/2017

Finnbogason: "Development of TSG admirable"

Alfred Finnbogason missed a large chunk of this season through injury. The Augsburg striker has, however, been able to help his team in their battle to avoid relegation since Matchday 27. He speaks to us about his injury, the fight for survival and the game against TSG.

First a 1-1 draw away at Gladbach, then another 1-1 draw at home to Dortmund – two good results in the last two weeks, but why are you still not out of trouble?

Alfred Finnbogason: The teams around us in the table have also picked up points in the last few weeks and that’s taken it to the last day. That shows that we must concentrate only on ourselves. If we pick up points, it’s irrelevant what the other teams do. Lots of people wrote us off a few weeks ago, but we’ve big up points against two big teams and we can be happy with these performances. I’m certain that we’ll manage to stay up in the end.

After a long time out with a pelvic injury, you were finally able to get back involved on Matchday 27. How difficult is it to spend such a long time watching from the sidelines?

Finnbogason: Obviously, it was a very difficult time. As a footballer, you always want to play. Injuries are never nice, but they’re a part of the game and this experience made me stronger.

The game between Hamburg and Wolfsburg will be played at the same time as the one in Sinsheim. How closely will you have one eye on what happens in that match?

Finnbogason: We’ll do exactly what we’ve done in the last few weeks and that is concentrate on ourselves and make sure we give our best performance. Therefore, during the 90 minutes, we’ll completely ignore the other match. We want to stay up through our own performance.

2017 began for Augsburg with a defeat to TSG. Did you ever think that Hoffenheim would be fighting for third place at the end of the season?

Finnbogason: Before the season starts you can never predict where teams will finish. Honestly speaking, I had a few more teams to finish ahead of TSG than will be the case. But Hoffenheim absolutely deserve to be where they are and under Julian Nagelsmann, the development of TSG has been admirable.  

Both clubs have a lot to play for on the final day. What sort of a game are you expecting?

Finnbogason: Hoffenheim will go into the game as favourites. But in the games against Leipzig, Gladbach and Dortmund, we showed that we can irritate the big teams. We’ll make it as difficult as we can for TSG and if we’re being totally honest, Hoffenheim should be quite content with finishing fourth (laughs).

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