He Said What? The Bundesliga Matchday 25 Trainer Soundbites

The final whistle blows, and the dust settles on the previous ninety minutes. But the press soon wants to get the opinions from the Bundesliga trainers whether they have won, lost, or drawn. Here’s what they had to say following matchday 25.

Borussia Mönchengladbach 2-2 Werder Bremen

Daniel Farke: “It’s a draw, but it feels like a defeat, and there’s no sugarcoating it. We might feel a little differently in a couple of days, as we got a point at least, which might end up proving useful. However, we’re incredibly disappointed with the result right now. The first half was a little wild from both teams. We played with a little too much risk at times. We also missed a couple of golden chances.

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“Our second-half performance had a little more control and, apart from our chance conversion, we played really well. Bremen had two shots in the second half and they scored twice – that’s the kind of clinical edge that we didn’t show, unfortunately. If you don’t take your chances, you can’t afford to make a single mistake, and that wasn’t the case. We have to live with the point.”

Ole Werner: “That was an incredibly spirited performance. We came back twice, so it’s a point gained for us. Given the circumstances we find ourselves in at the moment, it was a very good performance from my team. Even though we’ve had to cobble a team together, we were on a par with Gladbach for long periods.

“We actually looked better at times in the first half, but we struggled a little more after the break. However, Michael Zetterer made some good saves and kept us in the game a number of times.”

Hoffenheim 3-1 Hertha Berlin

Pellegrino Matarazzo: “We made a cautious start to the game but we grew more courageous once we had scored the opening goal, so the result was in line with the balance of play. It’s always good to win. The victory was deserved today. We produced a performance that enabled us to finally get three points. I am of course happy for the boys that they finally got their reward. I feel that we have a close bond within the team, which makes me very happy.

“We have of course been thinking a lot in the past few days, but we’ve been looking forwards. The boys left their heart out on the pitch today. We wanted to move the game into the opposition’s half and not lose our compactness in the process. That didn’t always work, but it often looked good.”

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Sandro Schwarz: “It was a completely deserved victory for Hoffenheim. We didn’t produce a good performance and gave them two gifts. Both penalties were justified. We didn’t show any reaction after conceding the goals. Instead, we only had a good five minutes after half-time and then let in the third goal far too easily. With that in mind, we completely deserved to lose. The performance is disappointing.”

Borussia Dortmund 6-0 1FC Köln

Edin Terzic: “We saw a really good performance from us. We immediately took control. In terms of efficiency, we took a really good step in the right direction compared to the derby last week. What is particularly nice is that nobody dropped off; rather, everyone produced a really good performance. There was a short spell in the first half in which they didn’t have so much desire to push and Cologne had more of the ball. We adjusted that at the break and deservedly won. We’re satisfied to go into the international break like this.

“We were well in the game and didn’t want to disrupt the rhythm. The lads worked well, did not let up, and had fun and enjoyed themselves. Afterwards, we made substitutions. We had lads with four yellow cards on the pitch. In view of that fact, we then took a more cautious approach.”

Steffen Baumgart: “Dortmund deserved to win the game. Basically, we were always a step too late against a very good Dortmund team today. We didn’t get what you need today to take something with us against BVB. It’s not an easy situation for us at the moment. We can only solve this situation together. We are a good collective and everyone has to take responsibility. And I’m leading the way.

“We’re happy to talk about the results – we don’t have the arguments, you’re right. But I rate the performance differently. We still have to find solutions. Then I hope that we can get the right results again.”

FC Augsburg 1-1 Schalke

Enrico Maaßen: “We were the slightly better side in a hard-fought game. The red card changed the match and after that we simply had to try and defend. Our committed performance meant that they only had that one chance through Simon Terodde. The timing of the penalty was frustrating. My side fought really hard and invested a lot.”

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Thomas Reis: “It’s hard to say if we lost two points or gained one. The first half was relatively even, but my team really lacked conviction and I told them that at the break. We knew that Augsburg would put us under pressure because, like us, they like to use man-to-man marking. They forced us into playing a number of long balls. We wanted to be better positioned for the second balls, but often lost them.

“We started the second half well, but invited them on to score. The red card helped us gain control of the game, though we didn’t really use it. We never gave up and at least got a late equaliser from the spot. We’ll gladly take the point.”

VfL Bochum 1-0 RB Leipzig

Thomas Letsch: “Thank you for the congratulations. I can confirm a lot of what Marco said. We didn’t concede much in the first half and had one or two situations where we were dangerous ourselves. We knew that we wouldn’t get many chances against Leipzig. Set pieces were therefore an issue. I am happy that it worked so well. Erhan Masovic is developing more and more into a goal scorer. Although Leipzig were dominant, we also defended well at the end. The last ten minutes were wild. Manuel Riemann and a combination with a bit of luck then kept us the victory.

“I am absolutely proud of the team. It feels good to go into the break with two wins. But we must not get carried away. It was a big step, but we have to stay sharp.”

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Marco Rose: “It was the kind of game that we were expecting. We defended well over long stretched, but needed to be more alert to prevent what happened for their goal. We conceded from a simple dead ball. We were in control of the game and played well out from the back, but didn’t take the big chances that we had.”

VfB Stuttgart 0-1 VfL Wolfsburg

Bruno Labbadia: “We didn’t get control in the first half. We didn’t play that well tactically. Wolfsburg are a good team, they’re well-rehearsed, Niko did a good job. In the second half we decided that we had to be a lot more courageous in attacking up front. We’ve had a couple of chances but we didn’t have the punch.”

Niko Kovac: “I’m very happy with the performance and the result. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy. But we didn’t concede any chances worth mentioning. We can be very happy today.”

Union Berlin 2-1 Eintracht Frankfurt

Urs Fischer: “That was an important win. In some situations you have felt a bit of nervousness due to the last few weeks. For me it’s crucial that the team got their virtues onto the pitch. Of course we were a bit lucky here and there, but you have to work for that too. We were very efficient up front today and we had a great goalkeeper at the back.”

Oliver Glasner: “Apart from our finishing, everything went right for us in the first half. Union punished our mistakes and won the game without creating a clear-cut opening themselves. We perhaps should have held them to a goalless draw today. We keep losing games in the same manner.”

Bayer Leverkusen 2-1 Bayern Munich

Julian Nagelsmann:  “Leverkusen’s win was deserved. We were the worse team up till the last 10 minutes. Lots of things in pressing had to be done alone in the first half. We were lethargic today. We didn’t have enough power out there. We’d actually taken good steps forward in recent weeks in terms of power, quality and emotion. But today we won too few challenges. It just wasn’t good enough today.”

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Xabi Alonso: “It‘s incredible for us to have won against Bayern, against one of the best teams in Europe. We played intensely, but also did very well in possession. It was a deserved and important win for us. I’m happy. Now we need to keep going.”

Mainz 1-1 Freiburg

Bo Svensson: “It’s good that we scored the goal, we’re happy about it. But we have to be critical about the last two games. What we did in the second half  is far, far from what we aspired to. We let ourselves down a bit.”

Christian Streich: “When you see the energy coming onto the pitch at Mainz, if you don’t do everything to counter it, then you’ll be eaten up here. The team put all their energy onto the pitch and were mentally strong. I can’t be terribly unhappy. When a team plays like that after the unfortunate loss to Juve, I can only take my hat off.”

About Mathew Burt 1058 Articles
Former writer at Goal.com and JustFootball, I've been doing my thing for Bundesliga Fanatic since 2015. A long-suffering Werder Bremen fan and disciple of the Germanic holy trinity...Bier. Wurst und Fußball