Julian Brandt has had a successful week. After scoring his first goal for the Germany U21s during the 4-1 victory over the Faroe Islands in midweek as well as netting in Bayer 04 Leverkusen’s 3-0 victory over VfL Wolfsburg on Friday night. Brandt scored the opener after 27 minutes - his fifth goal of the campaign. In an interview with DFB.de he spoke about the reasons for Leverkusen’s rollercoaster season, his own form and the upcoming weeks in the Bundesliga.
Question: Julian Brandt, you scored the opener today against your former club. Was it particularly pleasing to score against Wolfsburg?
Julian Brandt: No, it doesn’t stand out that much. It’s always nice to score. Obviously it was nice to score against them, but I celebrated this goal just like any other.
Question: Your goal paved the way towards victory. It was quite a tough game before that, right?
Brandt: It’s never easy against Wolfsburg. We were clinical though – we didn’t have many chances but converted them. We possibly haven’t scored enough goals this term but we did well on Friday and I’m happy to have helped the team.
Question: You’re in good form currently. What’s caused the improvement?
Brandt: It’s going quite well for me right now. I did well last spring too – scoring in three consecutive games – so maybe that plays a part! I’m very happy that it’s working out so well because it’s never easy to recover from a poor spell of form.
Question: So nothing special happened to provoke this?
Julian Brandt has had a successful week. After scoring his first goal for the Germany U21s during the 4-1 victory over the Faroe Islands in midweek as well as netting in Bayer 04 Leverkusen’s 3-0 victory over VfL Wolfsburg on Friday night. Brandt scored the opener after 27 minutes - his fifth goal of the campaign. In an interview with DFB.de he spoke about the reasons for Leverkusen’s rollercoaster season, his own form and the upcoming weeks in the Bundesliga.
Question: Julian Brandt, you scored the opener today against your former club. Was it particularly pleasing to score against Wolfsburg?
Julian Brandt: No, it doesn’t stand out that much. It’s always nice to score. Obviously it was nice to score against them, but I celebrated this goal just like any other.
Question: Your goal paved the way towards victory. It was quite a tough game before that, right?
Brandt: It’s never easy against Wolfsburg. We were clinical though – we didn’t have many chances but converted them. We possibly haven’t scored enough goals this term but we did well on Friday and I’m happy to have helped the team.
Question: You’re in good form currently. What’s caused the improvement?
Brandt: It’s going quite well for me right now. I did well last spring too – scoring in three consecutive games – so maybe that plays a part! I’m very happy that it’s working out so well because it’s never easy to recover from a poor spell of form.
Question: So nothing special happened to provoke this?
Brandt: No, I didn’t get any taller, nor did I lose or gain weight. Sometimes you simply need a sense of carelessness on the pitch. You need confidence in order to pull off certain moves, which at times can look very difficult. It’s going well for me right now and hopefully I can keep it going.
Question: Leverkusen have now picked up three straight wins. What is your take on the situation in the standings?
Brandt: We are in fourth place now, which is a good situation for us. We will just have to wait and see what we make of it. We have to play our rivals in the coming weeks, so maybe you should ask me then (laughs).
Question: Last season, Bayer 04 went on a ten game unbeaten run when faced with a similar situation. Will that act as inspiration for you?
Brandt: I would like to replicate that run. But I don’t feel as if the situation is similar to last season, so I can’t say if we will present ourselves the same way we did then. If we stay unbeaten in the next two or three games, then we can start a similar run. Obviously it would be awesome, but we have to stay calm and focus on the tasks at hand.
Question: You returned from U21 duty during the week. Are you already thinking about Rio?
Brandt: I think Rio would be a really sweet experience. But I’m not thinking about it yet because it’s still too far away. I don’t know if I selection is a realistic target to be honest, but if I play well for Bayer 04 it could be possible.
