scfreiburg.com: Roland, we’ve had a home win against Bochum, reached a cup final, and had a wild 3-3 draw at home to Gladbach – it’s been a week to remember...

Roland Sallai: It’s been a fantastic week! We’ve showed that we’re a proper top team – our performances have been really, really good.

We started the week with a 3-0 win at home to Bochum, where you scored your second brace for SCF.

Hopefully not the last! When the coach took me off, I joked with him that ‘I wanted to score a hat-trick!’ But really, we were all happy, we had a fantastic week and we have to carry on in the same vein.

You were named as player of the week by ‘Kicker’ for your performance there, and then FIFA rewarded you with a Team of the Week card!

I was waiting for that! (laughs)

What do you think of your stats?

(smiles) I think it’s a bit harsh to be honest. Only 78 pace... I think I’m closer to 83 or 84, and want a bit more in shooting and dribbling too.

What do you think the coach would say if he saw your 42 defending?

I think he’d be a bit annoyed! (laughs) I think I’ve already improved a bit in that area.

You’ve played 94 games for Freiburg, the most you’ve played for a single club by some margin. Why do you think SC is such a good match for you?

It’s been a fantastic match for me here from the very first day. I’ve always felt a lot of trust from the coaching staff and I’ve improved my game year on year. I’m delighted to be here, both at the club and in Freiburg. It’s been great away from the pitch, too: my girlfriend and I love it here, and we’ve just got ourselves a second dog. It’s all going fantastically.

Let’s talk about the DFB-Pokal. It’s the first time we’ve reached the final in the club’s history, and you scored a 120th-minute goal to send us to the semi-final – a lot has gone on in the cup this season.

All the games were very tight, but we’ve always managed to come through them as a team. We can fight hard and we can play beautiful football, and even if things aren’t going too well, we can score goals and win games. That’s been a big strength of our season.

Every kid dreams of getting to the final and winning the Pokal – you’re just a few weeks away from doing the same.

It’s a dream for us all; not just for me, but for every player. To be able to play in a final with Freiburg is fantastic – it’s never happened in the club’s history. It’s all down to one game, and anything can happen in 90 minutes. Before that, though, we have three games left in the Bundesliga which we all have to focus all our efforts on. We’ll think about the final after that.

Is it difficult to ignore the thoughts about the final in your head?

We’re professionals; we don’t get overawed by occasions, so we’re concentrating on our last three games this season. We have a shot at qualifying for European football, which would be massive for Freiburg. Where we are in the league and the Pokal shows everyone how good our team is this season.

You also showed your strengths as a team last Saturday: despite a long, hard week, and being 2-0 down at half time, you fought back and took the lead late on only to concede a stoppage-time equaliser. What did you think of the game?

It hurt a lot to concede a goal in the last minute, of course, but despite that, the positives outweighed the negatives. We played fantastically in the second half and came back from 2-0 down. The fans helped us through it a lot; we need to carry on in the same way.

Our next stop is in Sinsheim to play TSG Hoffenheim. What do you expect from the game?

Hoffenheim are a really good team and have some great players. We did win there 4-1 in the Pokal, but we conceded a late winner to them at home earlier this season. We want to take revenge for that and win the game.

Interview: Marcel Burger