Jarolím looks for Hamburg lift off

Hamburger SV midfielder David Jarolím has called on his side to make up for a poor start in the UEFA Champions League by picking up their first points in Group G away to FC Porto on Tuesday.

Unhappy weekend
As well as two defeats by Arsenal FC and PFC CSKA Moskva, Hamburg have yet to win in seven Bundesliga matches and Saturday's latest setback, a 2-1 home defeat by FC Schalke 04, was notable for Jarolím's red card just before half-time. To make matters worse, he picked up a shoulder injury and will now be out of action for a month.

Timely boost
Yet the return to training of talisman Rafael van der Vaart after his own injury problems has come as a timely boost and Jarolím insists Hamburg should not be written off. Hamburg rarely threatened in Moscow on Matchday 2 and will need to play a more expansive game at the Estádio do Dragão if they are to retain any hope of making an impression in Europe this season.

'Pressure'
"We didn't play so well going forward, we didn't make many chances," Jarolím told uefa.com. "We needed to draw and take a point. CSKA played very well defensively and it was very difficult for us but we should have had a point. We have to apply more pressure and be more clinical up front. If we can do that we still have a chance to progress from this group."

Injuries
As Jarolím's own setback shows, injuries have hit Hamburg hard this term with first Van der Vaart, and now Guy Demel and Bastian Reinhardt all high-profile absentees. The departure of key players over the summer is also still being felt and Hamburg are yet to win this season. Jarolím, though, believes his team-mates can turn the corner. "It's true that the confidence is not so high but we know we have a good team and good individual players," he said.

'Improve'
"Many new players have arrived and it's not easy to immediately gel a team. We have to look to the future and I hope we can improve things in our next game. Qualifying will be very difficult. We lost the first two games and have had a very bad start. Now we have to make sure we win our home games and also in Porto if we are to have a chance of getting out of the group."