Off the pitch and straight into the media zone. Reporters ask, players answer. As always, DFB.de have rounded up all the quotes from Germany’s senior and youth internationals after their Bundesliga matches. Today we bring you the reaction from the likes of Ron-Robert Zieler, Marco Reus, Matthias Ginter, Sebastian Rudy, Julian Weigl, Jérôme Boateng, Manuel Neuer and Benedikt Höwedes, among others.
Hamburger SV 1-2 Hannover 96
Nicolai Müller: It’s difficult to say anything so soon after the game. We started well and didn’t really play badly, so it’s tough to take. We need to score goals and make the most of our many chances. I can’t explain this defeat. We need to recover quickly and look ahead.
Ron-Robert Zieler: We didn’t put on a good performance in the first half. Despite all the excitement, we can’t ignore that first 45 minutes. In the Bundesliga, things can go badly very quickly if you’re not careful. Despite that, we were still in the game at 1-0. We sat down together at half time and found our voices. Even if things aren’t going quite so well on the pitch, we still showed that we have the character and qualities to give our all and still get the win. But the bottom line is that football is a results-orientated game. Last week we gave away all three points and this week, with a bit of luck, we got all three. That was important for us if you take a look at the table. Now we can take a breather and hope to build on the win next week.
Werder Bremen 1-3 Borussia Dortmund
Marco Reus: It was extremely difficult for us. We play patiently, but despite leading we didn’t play at the right tempo. At the break we all agreed that we were trying to force things too much and we needed to let the ball do the work more often. In the end we played well. The match was a lot harder than it may have looked. When you’re second, you always check to see how the top team played. Bayern are still a few points ahead, but we are comfortable in second. Things change very quickly in the Bundesliga. We’re just concentrating on ourselves.
Matthias Ginter: We’re happy that we got all three points. We did well in the first half, but gave away some big chances. Bremen were very defensively solid.
Julian Weigl: We made things difficult for ourselves, we were a bit sluggish. We switched the ball from side to side, but we didn’t create enough in the danger zones, at least until the second half when we did well. We won back possession a lot in their half and we raised the tempo. We had a lot of chances and scored three well-deserved goals. Werder held off well for a long time and made our lives very difficult. It’s a good feeling to know that we can stay tight at the back and then make it count up front.
1. FC Köln 0-0 TSG Hoffenheim
Sebastian Rudy: It was important to stay compact and tight today as it meant that they didn’t get too many chances. We managed that, but it’s only the first step. There’s more work to be done.
Eintracht Frankfurt 0-0 Bayern München
Marc Stendera: I don’t think we would have expected this result after our recent results. We wanted to sit back deep today and really pull our socks up, which we did well. In my opinion we deserved the point today.
Off the pitch and straight into the media zone. Reporters ask, players answer. As always, DFB.de have rounded up all the quotes from Germany’s senior and youth internationals after their Bundesliga matches. Today we bring you the reaction from the likes of Ron-Robert Zieler, Marco Reus, Matthias Ginter, Sebastian Rudy, Julian Weigl, Jérôme Boateng, Manuel Neuer and Benedikt Höwedes, among others.
Hamburger SV 1-2 Hannover 96
Nicolai Müller: It’s difficult to say anything so soon after the game. We started well and didn’t really play badly, so it’s tough to take. We need to score goals and make the most of our many chances. I can’t explain this defeat. We need to recover quickly and look ahead.
Ron-Robert Zieler: We didn’t put on a good performance in the first half. Despite all the excitement, we can’t ignore that first 45 minutes. In the Bundesliga, things can go badly very quickly if you’re not careful. Despite that, we were still in the game at 1-0. We sat down together at half time and found our voices. Even if things aren’t going quite so well on the pitch, we still showed that we have the character and qualities to give our all and still get the win. But the bottom line is that football is a results-orientated game. Last week we gave away all three points and this week, with a bit of luck, we got all three. That was important for us if you take a look at the table. Now we can take a breather and hope to build on the win next week.
Werder Bremen 1-3 Borussia Dortmund
Marco Reus: It was extremely difficult for us. We play patiently, but despite leading we didn’t play at the right tempo. At the break we all agreed that we were trying to force things too much and we needed to let the ball do the work more often. In the end we played well. The match was a lot harder than it may have looked. When you’re second, you always check to see how the top team played. Bayern are still a few points ahead, but we are comfortable in second. Things change very quickly in the Bundesliga. We’re just concentrating on ourselves.
Matthias Ginter: We’re happy that we got all three points. We did well in the first half, but gave away some big chances. Bremen were very defensively solid.
Julian Weigl: We made things difficult for ourselves, we were a bit sluggish. We switched the ball from side to side, but we didn’t create enough in the danger zones, at least until the second half when we did well. We won back possession a lot in their half and we raised the tempo. We had a lot of chances and scored three well-deserved goals. Werder held off well for a long time and made our lives very difficult. It’s a good feeling to know that we can stay tight at the back and then make it count up front.
1. FC Köln 0-0 TSG Hoffenheim
Sebastian Rudy: It was important to stay compact and tight today as it meant that they didn’t get too many chances. We managed that, but it’s only the first step. There’s more work to be done.
Eintracht Frankfurt 0-0 Bayern München
Marc Stendera: I don’t think we would have expected this result after our recent results. We wanted to sit back deep today and really pull our socks up, which we did well. In my opinion we deserved the point today.
Jérôme Boateng: Obviously we are disappointed, we wanted to win. For us it’s a shame that we didn’t win and get all three points. When you see how Frankfurt played, it’s obvious that it wasn’t a pretty game to watch. We need to recover now and do better against Arsenal. I don’t think they will play too differently from Frankfurt.
Manuel Neuer: It feels like we’re lost the game, although we tried everything. Obviously it’s frustrating when you are always pushing forward but can’t create any real chances. We kept trying and were motivated to score, but Frankfurt were very clever.
VfL Wolfsburg 2-1 Bayer 04 Leverkusen
Julian Draxler: The win was very important for us. We’re very satisfied with the three points. We wanted to break into the top three, so it was a big step.
Christoph Kramer: A draw wouldn’t have been undeserved for either side. But if there had to be a winner, we obviously were going to make sure it was us.
Schalke 04 1-1 FC Ingolstadt
Benedikt Höwedes: We almost went back to our old ways in the first half; we were lacking desire and passion. Ingolstadt then scored a fortunate goal. The manager didn’t mince his words at half time. We came out of the changing room a much better side, moving the ball around more quickly and creating better chances. It’s obviously a shame that we could only come away with one point though.
Leroy Sané: We knew that Ingolstadt were good away from home. We struggled in the first half. We had a few chances but we were lacking bite in order to win the important tackles and get a goal. We were much better after the break. Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting set up my goal brilliantly. I only had to stick my head on the cross.
