Matthias Ginter had a day to remember in Borussia Dortmund's 3-2 win against FC Schalke 04, setting up his side's first goal and heading in the second. The World Cup winner grabbed his second goal and his sixth assist in the Bundesliga this season, and put in another superb shift down the left-hand side. His performance will do him no harm as he seeks selection for the upcoming international fixtures. In an interview with DFB.de, Matthias Ginter discussed his ninth win in twelve Bundesliga matches.
Question: Mr Ginter, you set up the first goal and scored the second yourself. Was it a perfect derby day for you?
Matthias Ginter: As a defender, I don't go into a game with the task of creating or scoring goals. I try to help the team more generally to play well and pick up points – that's always my main aim. From that point of view, I'm pleased that we took all three against Schalke, but chipping in with a goal and an assist isn't bad either.
Question: What was up with your celebration? It looked a bit like a windscreen wiper.
Ginter: It goes back to my hometown club. I promised a few friends there that I'd do it sometime, but I'd always forgotten. I'm always so pumped up when I score that I don't necessarily think about it, but it's certainly something special to score against Schalke.
Question: You said before the game that you didn't want to do anything out of the ordinary in the derby.
Ginter: The primary goal is always defending, so the entire team's aim was not to do anything unusual, but simply to impose our game on Schalke. That's what I meant. We just wanted to keep things simple, and I think we did just that.
Question: You allowed some gaps at the back for both of the goals conceded. Is that part and parcel of that style of play?
Ginter: They were unlucky situations. We didn't allow them much. If we'd failed to win this game and lost points, we would have only had ourselves to blame. We could have taken a 4-1 lead earlier on or gone 4-2 ahead towards the end, but the bottom line is that we got the win. It was well deserved.
Question: When you play against Schalke in the derby, you don't expect to score two headed goals. How did Borussia manage that?
Ginter: We knew how Schalke would play. They almost had a line of six in midfield with Max Meyer and Franco di Santo. We struggled against them at first and played too many long balls, but we began to use the wings well. We had enough chances to wrap up the win sooner and to win by a greater margin.
Question: Mr Ginter, the significance of the game for your position in the table is presumably more important than an isolated derby win. Three direct rivals for the Champions League – Wolfsburg, Schalke and Leverkusen – all lost, and Mönchengladbach could only manage a 0-0 draw. You've opened up a decent gap between yourselves and the chasing pack.
Ginter: That's true! We knew that the derby was a sort of six-pointer. We wanted to keep our rivals at arm's length whilst also building up a bit of a gap over them. We're now eight points above Wolfsburg and nine above Schalke – that's a good feeling.
Question: Now you can challenge Bayern, then.
Ginter: No, stop that!
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Matthias Ginter had a day to remember in Borussia Dortmund's 3-2 win against FC Schalke 04, setting up his side's first goal and heading in the second. The World Cup winner grabbed his second goal and his sixth assist in the Bundesliga this season, and put in another superb shift down the left-hand side. His performance will do him no harm as he seeks selection for the upcoming international fixtures. In an interview with DFB.de, Matthias Ginter discussed his ninth win in twelve Bundesliga matches.
Question: Mr Ginter, you set up the first goal and scored the second yourself. Was it a perfect derby day for you?
Matthias Ginter: As a defender, I don't go into a game with the task of creating or scoring goals. I try to help the team more generally to play well and pick up points – that's always my main aim. From that point of view, I'm pleased that we took all three against Schalke, but chipping in with a goal and an assist isn't bad either.
Question: What was up with your celebration? It looked a bit like a windscreen wiper.
Ginter: It goes back to my hometown club. I promised a few friends there that I'd do it sometime, but I'd always forgotten. I'm always so pumped up when I score that I don't necessarily think about it, but it's certainly something special to score against Schalke.
Question: You said before the game that you didn't want to do anything out of the ordinary in the derby.
Ginter: The primary goal is always defending, so the entire team's aim was not to do anything unusual, but simply to impose our game on Schalke. That's what I meant. We just wanted to keep things simple, and I think we did just that.
Question: You allowed some gaps at the back for both of the goals conceded. Is that part and parcel of that style of play?
Ginter: They were unlucky situations. We didn't allow them much. If we'd failed to win this game and lost points, we would have only had ourselves to blame. We could have taken a 4-1 lead earlier on or gone 4-2 ahead towards the end, but the bottom line is that we got the win. It was well deserved.
Question: When you play against Schalke in the derby, you don't expect to score two headed goals. How did Borussia manage that?
Ginter: We knew how Schalke would play. They almost had a line of six in midfield with Max Meyer and Franco di Santo. We struggled against them at first and played too many long balls, but we began to use the wings well. We had enough chances to wrap up the win sooner and to win by a greater margin.
Question: Mr Ginter, the significance of the game for your position in the table is presumably more important than an isolated derby win. Three direct rivals for the Champions League – Wolfsburg, Schalke and Leverkusen – all lost, and Mönchengladbach could only manage a 0-0 draw. You've opened up a decent gap between yourselves and the chasing pack.
Ginter: That's true! We knew that the derby was a sort of six-pointer. We wanted to keep our rivals at arm's length whilst also building up a bit of a gap over them. We're now eight points above Wolfsburg and nine above Schalke – that's a good feeling.
Question: Now you can challenge Bayern, then.
Ginter: No, stop that!
