Adler confident Hamburg will beat drop

Rene Adler is “convinced” Hamburg can avoid relegation as the Bundesliga season goes down to the wire.

Only four points separate the bottom six teams with two matches remaining and 14th-placed Hamburg are part of that scrap, and they are one point clear of the relegation play-off spot and drop zone.

It is the second consecutive season Hamburg’s top-flight status has been on the line, after the club beat the drop via a play-off against Greuther Furth.

But 30-year-old Germany international Adler believes Hamburg will stay in the Bundesliga.

“We’re all 100 per cent convinced that we can survive this season,” Adler told Bundesliga.com. “We’ve worked incredibly hard in the past few weeks.

“We’re producing much more unified performances now and have become a lot tighter as a group.

“[Coach] Bruno Labbadia has set the example for us when it comes to unity. No one is excluding themselves, Labbadia would support that statement.”

Adler, whose Hamburg close out the campaign against Stuttgart and Schalke, added: “A few weeks ago following the 1-0 defeat to SV Werder Bremen almost everyone wrote us off. Now our fate is in our own hands.

“In our most recent encounters we’ve had to recover from several setbacks. Our opponents now know that they can’t write us off. We’ve pulled together as a team and every player has taken on a little more responsibility.

“Despite being in a tense situation, we’re having a lot of fun again in training. I believe that’s incredibly important. The teams who are most able to stay focused and are able to enjoy playing will ultimately be the ones who stay up. I’m convinced of that. And right now it’s a lot of fun for us in training.”