scfreiburg.com: Demi, it’s no secret that footballers prefer playing to training. How much are you looking to next week with the midweek game?

Ermedin Demirovic: Incredibly. I’m really looking forward to it – above all because one of the games is a DFB-Pokal quarter final. We have a lot of ambitions.

First up, we’re hosting Hertha at home before going away to Bochum in the cup. After that, we’re away again in Leipzig. Are they three completely different games?

Absolutely. Hertha are in a bit of a crisis and from the outside looking in, a few people might think that we’ve got to win. But even if it sounds a bit cliché, a boxer on the ropes is always dangerous. Anyone who say Hertha’s last game against Leipzig knows that they have a lot of quality. They didn’t play badly. After that, it’s Bochum: an away game in the cup. I need to say anything else. Everyone knows what we’re in for. Then in Leipzig we’ll be trying to end the week in the best possible way.

Let’s look at the game against Hertha first. They were defeated 6-1 by another of our upcoming opponents, Leipzig. However, they had several absences due to coronavirus. What could you take from the game?

After equalising after half time, they put on a lot of pressure and had two or three good chances to go in front. If the game plays out differently, they take a 2-1 or 3-1 lead but in the end they also got a red card. Therefore you shouldn’t look into the scoreline too much, but rather keep in mind that Hertha are Hertha and always have quality. The will ask a lot of us, but I believe that we should come out of the game victorious and we can do that if we bring our game.

That worked out against Augsburg last weekend. How did we emerge victorious in that game after two defeats beforehand?

The team was simply fully on their game. Everyone gave their all until the final whistle. At the end it became a little bit shaky, but you just have to survive however you can in such games. We’ve had a few games this season where things were touch and go and we came away with nothing. We managed to avoid that this time. We worked hard for it and deserved the win in the end.

How do we need to play in the upcoming games?

We have to do a lot if we want to be successful. So far we’ve managed that well, even if we’ve had a few setbacks. Despite that, we always came back. If we continue to do that, we can achieve a lot this season. We have the quality.

There is a lot of competition within the squad. You’ve made 24 appearances in 26 competitive games, but you’ve only been in the starting lineup 6 times. However, you always look like you’re enjoying yourself with your teammates in training, especially your fellow attackers. Where does your positive mood come from?

I get on brilliantly with Luci [Höler] and really with with Nils [Petersen] and the rest of the guys. Football is always a team game and that’s what I try to live by. Even if things aren’t going so good for me personally at the moment, I don’t think the team should suffer because of that.