Matchday 22 was full of action. Borussia Dortmund climbed further up the table and are twelfth after beating Stuttgart 3-2. VfL Wolfsburg and World Champion André Schürrle won again and are still on Bayern’s heels. DFB.de got the reactions from some of the players, including Marco Reus, Christoph Kramer, Max Kruse, Kevin Volland and Ron-Robert Zieler.
Hamburger SV 1-1 Borussia Mönchengladbach
Christoph Kramer: It didn’t go according to plan although we played well for the first twenty minutes. I don’t know if we were just powered out after that, but we should’ve won this. We played quite badly after that. Maybe we didn’t have a clear head after the midweek fixture. However, that’s not an excuse, considering we rotated the team.
Max Kruse: I think it’s impossible to consistently create chances over the full 90 minutes. Hamburg delivered a really good defensive performance. If we had gone 1-0 ahead after five minutes, the game would’ve certainly taken a different turn. However, this way we should be glad we got at least a point out of it. Unfortunately, that means we dropped extremely important points, but we can’t change that anymore. On Thursday, we’ll give our all to eliminate the title defenders from the Europa League. Our only real strategy for that corner was not to let the goalkeeper pick the ball out of the air. We were lucky that Branimir put it home.
VfL Wolfsburg 2-1 Hertha BSC
André Schürrle: It was a tough game, a real fight. We had to throw ourselves into it. We enjoyed a lot of possession, but knew that Hertha would focus on defending, while hoping that they’d get an opportunity at some point. They scored from their only chance. In the end, our patience paid off. We always waited for our chances. In the end we scored the goal. That win was incredibly important.
Robin Knoche: We knew that this was going to be a really difficult game with the opponents keeping 11 men behind the ball and closing all the gaps. Today we saw how disciplined they are in their defending. We shouldn’t have conceded the way we did though. We have to make sure that we manage to create a few more chances to score. We did better in the second half so in the end it was a well-deserved but hard-earned win.
VfB Stuttgart 2-3 Borussia Dortmund
Marco Reus: Of course we struggled today, but it doesn’t matter how we won. It’s more important that we won this important game. We collected three points against one of our rivals in the relegation battle and that’s all that matters. Nevertheless, I’m not completely happy with the way I played.
Ilkay Gündogan: Nine points out of three games is an ideal result. It couldn’t have gone better. Nonetheless, we’ll have to discuss the way we played. We shouldn’t concede like this. When we’re ahead and can’t capitalise on our opportunities to counter, we at least need to be solid at the back. We failed to force an early decision and that made life hard for us during the game. We’re still happy about the victory of course. We managed to return to our winning ways over the course of the last three games.
Schalke 04 1-1 Werder Bremen
Max Meyer: I’m really annoyed that we dropped those points, because winning would have meant an important step forward for us. After I came off I sat on the bench, hoping we would be able to hold on to that lead. Unfortunately, that didn’t work. We can’t change that now and have to work hard in training next week. I think my shot could’ve been kept out but in the end of the day I don’t really care, because the ball was in the back of the net. We shouldn’t have conceded. We were ahead had a grip on the game. It was a clash of two good teams. We still felt the impact of Wednesday’s fixture and beating Werder isn’t that easy. Bremen came here off the back of five wins and naturally that gave them self-confidence.
SC Freiburg 1-1 TSG Hoffenheim
Kevin Volland: It was a difficult first half for us. Fortunately, I got a good strike and we were back in the game. After that we were the better team and didn’t let them push us so far back anymore. We did better in our pressing play. We can be content with winning that point, even if we could’ve got three. It was a tough fight. Maybe we lacked composure in front of the goal. Next up are Mainz and we want to win at home.
1. FC Köln 1-1 Hannover 96
Ron-Robert Zieler: We started really well, just the way we wanted to. We went 1-0 ahead early on and dominated Köln. Then we conceded from a ball that was deflected. It was a really unfortunate goal. The ball basically fell onto Ujah’s head and it was 1-1. We definitely have the necessary quality in our squad. However, we need to try and play well over full 90 minutes and not just over 60, 70 or 30 minutes of the game. Considering the second half, during which Köln increased pressure, we probably have to be content with the draw. At least we collected a point on the road, but we need three points soon – ideally at home against Stuttgart next weekend.
Sources: bvb.de, schalke04.de, vfl-wolfsburg.de, vfb.de, achtzehn99.de, hannover96.de, borussia.de
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Matchday 22 was full of action. Borussia Dortmund climbed further up the table and are twelfth after beating Stuttgart 3-2. VfL Wolfsburg and World Champion André Schürrle won again and are still on Bayern’s heels. DFB.de got the reactions from some of the players, including Marco Reus, Christoph Kramer, Max Kruse, Kevin Volland and Ron-Robert Zieler.
Hamburger SV 1-1 Borussia Mönchengladbach
Christoph Kramer: It didn’t go according to plan although we played well for the first twenty minutes. I don’t know if we were just powered out after that, but we should’ve won this. We played quite badly after that. Maybe we didn’t have a clear head after the midweek fixture. However, that’s not an excuse, considering we rotated the team.
Max Kruse: I think it’s impossible to consistently create chances over the full 90 minutes. Hamburg delivered a really good defensive performance. If we had gone 1-0 ahead after five minutes, the game would’ve certainly taken a different turn. However, this way we should be glad we got at least a point out of it. Unfortunately, that means we dropped extremely important points, but we can’t change that anymore. On Thursday, we’ll give our all to eliminate the title defenders from the Europa League. Our only real strategy for that corner was not to let the goalkeeper pick the ball out of the air. We were lucky that Branimir put it home.
VfL Wolfsburg 2-1 Hertha BSC
André Schürrle: It was a tough game, a real fight. We had to throw ourselves into it. We enjoyed a lot of possession, but knew that Hertha would focus on defending, while hoping that they’d get an opportunity at some point. They scored from their only chance. In the end, our patience paid off. We always waited for our chances. In the end we scored the goal. That win was incredibly important.
Robin Knoche: We knew that this was going to be a really difficult game with the opponents keeping 11 men behind the ball and closing all the gaps. Today we saw how disciplined they are in their defending. We shouldn’t have conceded the way we did though. We have to make sure that we manage to create a few more chances to score. We did better in the second half so in the end it was a well-deserved but hard-earned win.
VfB Stuttgart 2-3 Borussia Dortmund
Marco Reus: Of course we struggled today, but it doesn’t matter how we won. It’s more important that we won this important game. We collected three points against one of our rivals in the relegation battle and that’s all that matters. Nevertheless, I’m not completely happy with the way I played.
Ilkay Gündogan: Nine points out of three games is an ideal result. It couldn’t have gone better. Nonetheless, we’ll have to discuss the way we played. We shouldn’t concede like this. When we’re ahead and can’t capitalise on our opportunities to counter, we at least need to be solid at the back. We failed to force an early decision and that made life hard for us during the game. We’re still happy about the victory of course. We managed to return to our winning ways over the course of the last three games.
Schalke 04 1-1 Werder Bremen
Max Meyer: I’m really annoyed that we dropped those points, because winning would have meant an important step forward for us. After I came off I sat on the bench, hoping we would be able to hold on to that lead. Unfortunately, that didn’t work. We can’t change that now and have to work hard in training next week. I think my shot could’ve been kept out but in the end of the day I don’t really care, because the ball was in the back of the net. We shouldn’t have conceded. We were ahead had a grip on the game. It was a clash of two good teams. We still felt the impact of Wednesday’s fixture and beating Werder isn’t that easy. Bremen came here off the back of five wins and naturally that gave them self-confidence.
SC Freiburg 1-1 TSG Hoffenheim
Kevin Volland: It was a difficult first half for us. Fortunately, I got a good strike and we were back in the game. After that we were the better team and didn’t let them push us so far back anymore. We did better in our pressing play. We can be content with winning that point, even if we could’ve got three. It was a tough fight. Maybe we lacked composure in front of the goal. Next up are Mainz and we want to win at home.
1. FC Köln 1-1 Hannover 96
Ron-Robert Zieler: We started really well, just the way we wanted to. We went 1-0 ahead early on and dominated Köln. Then we conceded from a ball that was deflected. It was a really unfortunate goal. The ball basically fell onto Ujah’s head and it was 1-1. We definitely have the necessary quality in our squad. However, we need to try and play well over full 90 minutes and not just over 60, 70 or 30 minutes of the game. Considering the second half, during which Köln increased pressure, we probably have to be content with the draw. At least we collected a point on the road, but we need three points soon – ideally at home against Stuttgart next weekend.
Sources: bvb.de, schalke04.de, vfl-wolfsburg.de, vfb.de, achtzehn99.de, hannover96.de, borussia.de
