In the second half of Sunday’s clash, 1. FC Köln began to press hard for the equaliser. But one man in the Rhein Energie stadium came to Hannover’s rescue and frustrated the Köln players: International keeper Ron-Robert Zieler pulled out some top saves and was the key player in his team’s 1-0 win away from home. In an interview with DFB.de, the World Cup winner spoke about the winning hand-ball goal, his saves and the return to his hometown.
Question:How important was this victory?
Ron-Robert Zieler:It was extremely important. It has to be said that it was an ugly win. We are aware of this, but it was still such an important win. If you look at the table you can see that we’ve been able to climb a few places. Obviously we’re still round the bottom. But the little winning streak that we’ve just started has done us a lot of good. At the end of the day it’s the points that count, not nice football. We’ll take the points, and we can now all have a bit of a breather. Then we have to be ready to step it up again against Eintracht Frankfurt.
Question:There was a lot of controversy surrounding the goal. How did you witness it?
Zieler:I couldn’t possibly comment on it. I was about 100 metres away from the incident. I noticed there were a few complaints. But at the time I had no way of knowing what they were about. Afterwards I obviously found out that the goal shouldn’t have been allowed to stand.
Question:In the second half, you made some top saves to deny Anthony Modeste and Philipp Hosiner as well as others. How do you rate your performance?
Zieler:I’m obviously very pleased with it. I’m in great form at the moment - you can’t really look at it any other way. My performances in the past few weeks have proven that. It’s also important that my saves have led to us picking up valuable points. As good as my performances have been - the success of the team is the most important thing
Question:It was the second victory with clean sheet on the bounce. Are the defenders doing anything differently from in the past?
In the second half of Sunday’s clash, 1. FC Köln began to press hard for the equaliser. But one man in the Rhein Energie stadium came to Hannover’s rescue and frustrated the Köln players: International keeper Ron-Robert Zieler pulled out some top saves and was the key player in his team’s 1-0 win away from home. In an interview with DFB.de, the World Cup winner spoke about the winning hand-ball goal, his saves and the return to his hometown.
Question:How important was this victory?
Ron-Robert Zieler:It was extremely important. It has to be said that it was an ugly win. We are aware of this, but it was still such an important win. If you look at the table you can see that we’ve been able to climb a few places. Obviously we’re still round the bottom. But the little winning streak that we’ve just started has done us a lot of good. At the end of the day it’s the points that count, not nice football. We’ll take the points, and we can now all have a bit of a breather. Then we have to be ready to step it up again against Eintracht Frankfurt.
Question:There was a lot of controversy surrounding the goal. How did you witness it?
Zieler:I couldn’t possibly comment on it. I was about 100 metres away from the incident. I noticed there were a few complaints. But at the time I had no way of knowing what they were about. Afterwards I obviously found out that the goal shouldn’t have been allowed to stand.
Question:In the second half, you made some top saves to deny Anthony Modeste and Philipp Hosiner as well as others. How do you rate your performance?
Zieler:I’m obviously very pleased with it. I’m in great form at the moment - you can’t really look at it any other way. My performances in the past few weeks have proven that. It’s also important that my saves have led to us picking up valuable points. As good as my performances have been - the success of the team is the most important thing
Question:It was the second victory with clean sheet on the bounce. Are the defenders doing anything differently from in the past?
Zieler:I don’t really know to be honest. But maybe we are a tad more concentrated than in the weeks before. We were making too many individual errors, which we’re not making at the moment. Now we’re showing that we have the quality to win and keep a clean sheet. That was the foundation of our victory. That’s why I hope we can carry on like this.
Question:Are games away to Köln still something special for you?
Zieler:It’s always nice to come back to Cologne, the place where I was born. But I now have 160 Bundesliga games under my belt, and quite a bit more experienced. So the game doesn’t have the same special feel that it did three or four years ago. But it is still nice to come back here and get the three points. It’s a fantastic stadium with fantastic fans. It’s a fantastic club.
Question:Do you get the feeling that luck is now on Hannover’s side?
Zieler:Is that not just what happens over the course of the season? It evens out, doesn’t it? Sometimes you get lucks, sometimes you are unlucky.
