FC St. Pauli

Alexander Blessin on…

…Elias Saad, who bagged a brace in the reverse fixture: "We said we were going to ease him back in. He doesn’t have the lungs for 90 minutes yet, but he is ready for a place in the starting lineup."

…the lowest tackles won in the league: "There are statistics you can interpret one way or another. I think we have a decent tackles won rate in the areas where it really matters, as we've seen in games like the one last week. We had some excellent turnovers and good situations where we managed without committing a foul. As far as the tackling is concerned, we had one game that wasn't good enough, the one at Bochum. Otherwise I've been really satisfied in that respect."

…the many connections between the two clubs: "We have lots of Freiburg lads in the squad and could almost field a second team. And then we have the situation with Jojo and his brother. We do some insiders here and we've already had a few conversations."

…SC Freiburg: "Under Julian Schuster they're having a really good campaign on a consistently good level. I like watching their games. Compactness coupled with individual quality – we're up against a good side who are looking to make amends, though we obviously have something to say about that. They switched things round during the reverse fixture and tried to put crosses in from the flanks, which caused us lots of problems. Cutting the crosses out will be an issue. We'll have to be extremely vigilant from set pieces and stay solid. That's more than warning enough."

…the reasons for the win in the reverse fixture: "We got the goals at the right time. Freiburg had two disallowed for offside and had a penalty as well, but we have a good keeper and he saved it. That kept us in it. The game wasn’t as clear-cut as the final score."

…always losing after going behind: "There's nothing I hate more than conceding. Keeping a clean sheet is the first priority. We want to end that run sometime. I've never had the feeling that we've surrendered after going behind. I haven't seen any games where we've given up. The day will come when we turn a game round."

…the league table: "We do look at what the other teams are doing but we look to ourselves first because we need to pick up points. There are 13 games left. It doesn’t sound a lot, but 39 points does. That's a huge number of points still up for grabs. We have to be careful because a lot can change within the space of two games, so we want to get the points we need to guarantee safety as soon as possible. That's what we're after and nothing else. People are forever making comparisons with the 2010/11 season. You read it and you accept it, but you can't compare one season with another. We want to write our own story."

Photos: Witters