FIRST TEAM
04/15/2021

Halstenberg: "We'll need a top performance"

Marcel Halstenberg has established himself as a Bundesliga and international player while at RB Leipzig. On Friday, he and his side will take on TSG Hoffenheim. In an interview with tsg-hoffenheim.de, the defender spoke about the title race, recent meetings with TSG and Friday evening's game.

Marcel, you recorded a convincing win away to Werder Bremen at the weekend. How do you assess your current form?

"We showed a very good reaction to our defeat in the top-of-the-table clash with Bayern. Many people had said that we would fall off a cliff. But we have impressively demonstrated that we want to win every game and are still hungry."

The gap to Bayern Munich currently stands at five points. How confident are you that the title race will become close again?

"Talking about that gets us nowhere. Last week, all the experts had already decided the title race was over; now it's apparently back on again. We're just concentrating on doing our job, trying to win as many matches as possible and we'll see where that gets us. The title isn't in our hands anyway, so our focus is only on us and our next match."

On Friday, you'll be hosting TSG Hoffenheim. You have come out on top in recent meetings. What has proven to be the difference in recent years?

"It's mostly come down to small details, because Hoffenheim have and have always had good teams. We have come through in the decisive moments and have always been able to swing the games in our favour. But ultimately, our good results against TSG in the past will not help us on Friday. We'll be starting from scratch again."

TSG have had a results crisis recently. What kind of team are you expecting to face on Friday?

"An extremely eager and ambitious team. Perhaps precisely because TSG's results haven't been good recently, they'll be even more motivated to pick up points against us. We'll need to be prepared for that, because we'll only keep the three points here in Leipzig if we produce a top performance."

There's a European Championship coming up in the summer. What are your goals for the tournament?

"I'm obviously hoping that I'll be involved. Having overcome an injury, I'm currently in the process of rediscovering my rhythm so that I can produce my best-possible performance on the pitch. If I can manage to do that, I'm positive that I will also be involved in the European Championships."

Match facts and statistics »

Download Now!
Print Page to top