Long after midnight, when the first relegation game between Hertha BSC and Hamburger SV had long since ended, people were still bustling around the Olympic Stadium.

The warm temperatures invited you to linger, the sky was clear and the beer tasted fresh.

According to Frank Zander's stadium anthem (“We're not just going home”) nobody wanted to visit their home, which was perhaps also due to a premonition.

In view of the previous 90 minutes, one or the other may have had the feeling that it could have been the last big football evening with Hertha BSC for a long time.

In the sold-out Olympic Stadium, 75,500 spectators saw a 1-0 win for Hamburger SV, who will now make the return to the Bundesliga perfect in their own arena next Monday (8.30 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Bundesliga relegation, on Sat.1 and Sky). can.

Hertha, on the other hand, is threatened with the third relegation in twelve years after 2010 and 2012.

After the first two, the club had come back directly.

This time, going into the second division could be more threatening and also of a more long-term nature.

Long gone are the days when it was so easy to slip away from the second division.

Who would know that better than HSV, who have been longing for Bundesliga football for four years.

Much at Hertha BSC is reminiscent of Hamburger SV, who retired from the top flight in 2018.

After years of blindness and self-destructive processes that drove the club further and further into the abyss.

This is exactly where Hertha BSC is now.

Mismanagement, internal disputes and poor sporting planning, Hertha has stood for all of this in recent years.

This negative development will culminate in spring 2022.

If you wanted to know how this team is doing, you only had to watch the final phase of the game.

No rearing up, no cornering despite the loud support, everyone seemed to prefer to deal with what they had experienced on their own.

What came after that sounded like perseverance slogans: "Nevertheless, it's only 1-0, the away goals rule is gone.

We have to accept it as it is," said Niklas Stark.

The former national player will leave Hertha, his farewell has been certain for a long time.

In the event of relegation, a large part of the team will follow him, coach Felix Magath was only signed until the end of this season anyway.

Magath, the rescue expert, should keep Hertha in the Bundesliga with a steady hand, now his calm can hardly be distinguished from disinterest.

Even after more than two months, he still doesn't know the names of all the players, he persistently calls goalkeeper Oliver Christensen "the young Dane" or "the goalkeeper".

Now, in Magath's defense, it must be said that Christensen was never intended to play a leading role.

He was third in the goalkeeping hierarchy behind Alexander Schwolow and Marcel Lotka, but because Schwolow and Lotka were both injured against Hamburg, “the young Dane” took center stage against Hamburg.

He hardly got any opportunities to distinguish himself, it was dominated by fight and at times also cramp.

It was clear to both teams that a lot was at stake.

Hertha were unlucky when a goal by Ishak Belfodil was disallowed at the end of the first half due to a narrow offside position.

After just under an hour, Ludovit Reis slipped a cross over his foot, and the intended goal turned into a shot on target, which sank over Christensen at the second post and into the net.

"I thought to myself, that can't be true.

Another piece of crap,” Stark said.

Magath said Christensen was not to blame: "The goalkeeper didn't make any mistakes." His team still had three days "to keep practicing," said the coach, sounding like a teacher who hardly gives his students a pass in the class test trusts.

At HSV, on the other hand, they prepare for the exam.

"We are convinced of ourselves and don't deviate from our style of play.

It's not about what Hertha plays, but what we play," said Hamburg coach Tim Walter.

And: "We're already looking forward to the next game." That only applies to a limited extent to his colleague Magath and his players.