HSV kick off their season on 24 August with a German cup match against Verl. Consequently, Saturday’s friendly against Toulouse—coached by Jens Berthel Askou—served as the final opportunity to test their form before the real action begins.
Rasmus Nicolaisen started for Toulouse, while Albert Gronbaek and Yussuf Poulsen began the match on the bench for HSV. From there, they watched Otto Stange give HSV a dream start by making it 1–0 after four minutes.
Toulouse equalized after an hour of play when Santiago Hidalgo made it 1–1. It looked like the points would be shared, but Albert Gronbaek had other ideas.
He came on in the 70th minute and struck in stoppage time. The ball fell to the left side of the box, where he connected with the inside of his foot and curled the ball into the far corner to make it 2–1, the final result of the match.