Hertha Berlin

While Sandro Schwarz prepares his team for Saturday’s away game in Freiburg (1/4, 15:30 CEST), five Hertha players are still away on international duty. Peter Pekarík and Slovakia got their first win of their EURO 2024 qualification campaign after drawing 0-0 against Luxembourg last Thursday. The right-back played the full 90 minutes in a 2-0 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina. Slovakia are now second in Group J.

The international break has come to an end for the five Hertha players who were away representing their countries. Most players had reason to celebrate, with Dodi Lukébakio and Belgium enjoying particularly good performances. After his two assists earned him the “Devil of the Match” award against Sweden, Lukébakio started in his country’s 3-2 win over Germany on Tuesday evening, playing almost 60 minutes. Despite no direct goal involvements in his second game, the Hertha number 14 can be pleased with his first international break of the season.

Hertha BSC face their longest away trip of the season on Saturday, when Sandro Schwarz and his team travel around 800km to take on SC Freiburg. Ahead of the game, the head coach spoke to the media and discussed the important keys to victory on the weekend. “We need to be effective in defence, avoid making individual errors and be brave and active when we have the ball,” said Schwarz. “We have to go out and play as a team and take the qualities from our recent home games and show them on the pitch in Freiburg.” Here’s what Schwarz had to say on…

Sandro Schwarz made six changes to the team who played against Hoffenheim for the visit to SC Freiburg. Marc Kempf and Márton Dárdai came back into the back three, with Jonjoe Kenny, Prince Boateng, Dodi Lukébakio and Wilfried Kanga also starting in the place of Agustín Rogel, Maximilian Mittelstädt, Suat Serdar, the suspended Marco Richter, Jessic Ngankam and Florian Niederlechner. The hosts, who were in fourth place before the game, were missing Michael Gregoritsch (suspended) as well as the injured Philipp Lienhart and Lukas Kübler.

The Blue-Whites picked up a point against a Europa League side in the 1-1 draw with Freiburg. It was an important point in the fight for survival, an important away point after a run of poor away performances. This was also how Prince Boateng, making his first start since the first day of the season, saw it. “We set out to show a completely different side of us to the one in Hoffenheim. There was a series of mistakes for their goal, but we didn’t give up. Team spirit, fight, everyone was there for one another and we also had fun playing – the way it should be. We knew what was riding on this game, but didn’t let that restrict us,“ said Hertha’s number 27 before continuing: “In the end, we are happy to pick up a point, which is also good for morale, even if with our chances it also could have been all three.” herthabsc.com has all the immediate reaction to the game in Freiburg.

The start of a new week of training likely causes conflicting feelings amongst Hertha fans. A home game on the weekend is reason to get excited about the upcoming home support, while away games bring a sense of frustration at not having been able to deliver the same standard of performance. This time, with a home game against RB Leipzig coming up (08.04.23, 18:30 CEST), the mood is different, however. Hertha are able to draw confidence from what was a strong showing away in Freiburg last time out (1-1). “It was important for us to deliver a strong performance on the road, like we have done at home, in order to take something from the game. We can build on this,” Sandro Schwarz said, calling it a “solid and focused” performance. “The key will be to bring this tactical discipline in our upcoming eight games, no matter if home or away!”

Hertha BSC have announced the founding of a girls’ and women’s department at the club, through a partnership with FC Hertha 03 Zehlendorf. The Old Lady will receive seven girls’ and two women’s teams from Zehlendorf, who already assist Hertha with the development of academy talents. As of 1st July 2023, a total of nine girls’ and women’s teams will compete in Berliner Fußball-Verband (BFV), Nordostdeutscher Fußballverband (NOFV) and German FA (DFB) competitions under the Hertha badge. All three associations have approved this move. “We’re very pleased to have nine girls’ and women’s teams join us as of this summer and to watch them compete in Hertha colours. This cooperation between two Herthas is a very exciting, but also serious, process,” said club president Kay Bernstein. He added, “We want to help strengthen the already burgeoning girls’ and women’s football scene in Berlin. This partnership is an important step towards the founding of our own girls’ and women’s football department, but we still have plenty of hard work ahead of us, which we’re taking a meticulous and focused approach to. It’s an honour to be able to continue the excellent work that Hertha 03 have done so far.”  

Sandro Schwarz has already managed 27 games as head coach of the Old Lady, but the game against RasenBallsport Leipzig this coming Saturday (08.04.23, 18:30 CEST) will be the first time the 44-year-old has managed a Saturday evening game at the Olympiastadion. Accordingly, the anticipation ahead of the game is high. “It is a good feeling to play at home again with 50,000 supporters behind us. Our expectations for ourselves are to focus on ourselves, to concentrate on the essentials, to show as much desire as possible and to give everything in order to give us the chance of picking up a positive result,” explained the coach, before underlining once again. “We need to bring everything together on the pitch – tactics, game intelligence and heart!” herthabsc.com has summarised what Schwarz and sporting director Benjamin Weber had to say on…

There was encouraging applause for Hertha as they made their way to the Ostkurve after the 1-0 defeat against RB Leipzig. Even though this encouragement was more than just a nice sign and impressively showed the togetherness ahead of the final period of the season, you could see the disappointment in the faces. “It’s disappointing that we lost the game, but we showed the right side of Hertha BSC once again. The fans recognised that we gave everything,” said Prince Boateng, who made clear: “We’ll continue to stick together as a team and go to the lions’ den next week full of energy and aggression.”Herthabsc.com has all the reaction to the match.

Sandro Schwarz announced the same starting eleven for matchday 27 on Saturday evening that picked up a point against Freiburg a week earlier. The five in midfield around Prince Boateng were in front of a back three of Filip Uremović, Marc Kempf and Márton Dárdai, with Wilfried Kanga and Dodi Lukébakio starting in attack. Marco Richter (yellow card suspension) and Stevan Jovetić (calf problems) returned to the squad. For RB Leipzig, Kevin Kampl and Emil Forsberg replaced the injured Konrad Laimer and Dani Olmo, who both started in their cup match.