“Derbies are there to be won!”

First-ever Berlin derby in the cup! After five first-tier and four second-tier meetings between the sides, 1. FC Union and the “Old Lady” will face off for the first time in the DFB-Pokal on Wednesday (19/1/22, 20:45 CET). The fact this is a knockout tournament adds to the tension of the game which Tayfun Korkut and our team absolutely want to win. “It’s a derby, and derbies are there to be won, and that’s exactly what we want to do,” emphasised our head coach. “You need passion and courage to have success in games like these. The anticipation is huge amongst the team and for me personally. We want to make the fans happy and give them something back by winning!” Fredi Bobic highlighted just how special this game is. “Matches like these are why we do this job, and as a footballer, you live for such fixtures,” commented our managing director for sport.

herthabsc.com has collated the most important remarks from the pre-match presser with Korkut and Bobic as the pair discussed...

Tayfun Korkut: We haven’t focused too much on the league match we played earlier this season. At the end of the day, it’s a derby, and derbies are there to be won! That’s what we’re aiming to do! I’ve played in several derbies myself and I know what it takes to be successful in games like these: passion and courage! We want to make the fans happy and give them something back by winning. The anticipation is huge amongst the team and for me personally. When we re-watched the Wolfsburg match, we saw that we managed to settle into the game after a difficult start and then began to control proceedings. We’ll need to do that in the derby, as well as play with high intensity against well-organised opposition who we want to cause problems. We’re going to try and live and breathe everything which makes this derby special during every second of the tie!

Fredi Bobic: The Bundesliga table is of complete irrelevance for this game. There won’t be anything tactical in that sense, because only one team can leave victorious from the pitch. That’s the beautiful and the fascinating thing about the DFB-Pokal. I think it’ll be a hard-fought match, and we’ll need to play with the right intensity on the day. Matches like these are why we do this job, and as a footballer, you live for such fixtures and absolutely want to win them. To put it brutally, the players need to have the bit between their teeth for games like that and charge out onto the pitch without requiring much motivation from the head coach. We need to go into this great contest with all our heart!

Tayfun Korkut: Dedryck Boyata wasn’t able to participate in much of training and missed a lot of it, but he’s definitely an option for the game – as a player always is for such a game (smirks). We had a day off on Monday so we could be fresh going into the match. I’ve thought about the squad and the line-up a lot, but I’ll only make my final decision on Tuesday, because some of the lads are yet to return. Are we going to do extra penalty practice? That will of course be some part of the session. But you can’t really prepare for the reality of that situation, because so many more factors come into play when you do it for real. It would be better for us to win the game before it gets to that stage!

Tayfun Korkut: Union have a great structure that the team implement very well, and they’re also very consistent. It’s important that we take advantage of any kind of gap or space that we can find which won’t be easy and we know that, but we can really come into our own in matches like these – and that’s the task we’re going to take on and for which we’re preparing! FCU have done very, very well over the last few years, no doubt. However, when you take history into account, it’s clear who the number-one team in the city is. We need to then keep proving that on the pitch, however, which is exactly what we want to do!