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 27.
Borussia Dortmund 2-1 Union Berlin
Edin Terzic: “It was a close but deserved win in an extremely important game for us. We put in a really good performance in the first half, both offensively and defensively. We combined well with each other and were very active even without the ball.
“Unfortunately, we weren’t able to maintain that in the second half. It’s always difficult and always tight against Union Berlin. So, we are very relieved to go home with a win.
“He’s [Youssoufa Moukoko] a goalscorer and has a feel for where the ball is going. He anticipated that well, then stayed cool and rounded the goalkeeper. I’m his football coach and I want to have a close exchange with all the players – and especially with such young players who have received a lot of praise in recent years. We want to provide assistance.
“Because when they were young, they only ever heard how good they are. Then they get into senior football and realize it’s not that easy. We want to help the boys grow up. It’s extremely good for us that such a young guy once again decided the game for us.”
Urs Fischer: “I’m not sure whether I should be happy or angry that we lost this game 2-1. We were there from the start today and didn’t allow much. But after the 1-1 you have four or five chances that we didn’t use and should have played out more consistently. Despite that, we played a great game today.”
Bayer Leverkusen 3-1 Eintracht Frankfurt
Xabi Alonso: “Keep calm, put your feet on the ground and keep going. There is no other formula for us. Of course we’re happy to win against a top team like Eintracht. That’s an important step, but there is still a lot of work to be done.”
Oliver Glasner: “Congratulations to Xabi Alonso and Bayer Leverkusen on the win. From our point of view, it’s hard to take because we brought the three goals we conceded on ourselves. Leverkusen used their main strength of transitioning with pace in attack perfectly. On the whole we made too many mistakes in defence and weren’t effective enough going forward.
“Before the first goal, for example, it was a chain reaction of technical errors and being too slow to act. The boys will get two days off over Easter, which they’ve earned despite the defeat.”
Freiburg 0-1 Bayern Munich
Christian Streich: “I congratulate Bayern on their victory. On Tuesday we had two long-range shots, today it was one from Bayern that was enough to win. It would have been exciting if we had made it 1-0 through Ritsu Dōan.
“I’m very happy with the team, but not happy with the result. Bayern had more chances, but we also had chances, which would have been enough for a draw. So a long shot was enough.”
Thomas Tuchel: “”We deservedly won. However, it was very close until the end because we failed to score more goals. We had an incredible number of chances, but missed a lot. It lacked a bit of precision and calm in the finish. We were very attentive, worked very hard and only allowed one chance per half. It was a very good team performance.
“Today the positive clearly outweighs the fact that we had the chances and got the three points, that’s very important for us. I was happy with everyone, here in Freiburg it’s not just enough to solve it tactically and technically cleanly. You also need that certain something. There’s another game coming on Tuesday, other tasks, we’ll be ready.”
Mainz 2-2 Werder Bremen
Bo Svensson: “The first half was tough. In the course of the second half we put on more pressure. We inexplicably defended two situations badly. It doesn’t feel like a defeat. But we have to deal with it critically. How we defend there is not good enough.”
Ole Werner: “Both teams defended well for 85 minutes. There weren’t too many options. In the closing stages we didn’t manage to keep the ball away from our goal that well. This triggered the dynamic.
“We throw everything forward after falling behind and the great morale of the team is rewarded. Nevertheless, we have our issues, which are still there.”
Augsburg 1-3 Köln
Enrico Maaßen: “We knew how important the game was and could have made a big step today. Actually, we started the game very energetically, but then we made two big individual mistakes. That’s why we had to risk an awful lot and deservedly closed the gap to 1-2. But often the last pass and the last consequence were missing, otherwise we could have gone into half-time with a 2-2 lead.
“After the break we conceded another goal that was far too easy, after that we couldn’t develop enough power. It was a very intense game, but what’s important is what happens in the penalty area. We have to stop conceding too many easy goals as soon as possible – that will be our topic in the coming weeks.”
Steffen Baumgart: “We’re happy to have pulled in a threesome again after a long time. In my opinion, the win wasn’t undeserved, but it could have gone the other way. We played very boldly going forward and tried to create chances.
“The fact that they went in today has something to do with luck, of course, but also with ability. I saw two teams on an equal footing today, so I’m very happy that we can take the three points with us.”
Hertha Berlin 0-1 RB Leipzig
Sandro Schwarz: “It’s annoying how we conceded the goal. We tried everything again in the second half, and it’s normal for things to get wild. I think kept playing until the end We fought to get the result, really invested a lot, so it’s very annoying that we lost the game like that.”
Marco Rose: “The fact that our win came from a set piece today showed how hard it was to score a goal. Hertha were very compact so it was difficult to find spaces and play in behind their defensive line. Overall, we did well despite that. We were dominant and had some good chances. It was a good performance against a Hertha side who made things very difficult for us.
“We weren’t clinical enough in the first half and we didn’t have the kind of access and route to goal that I would have liked.”
Borussia Mönchengladbach 2-0 VfL Wolfsburg
Daniel Farke: You lack a bit of self-belief and fluency after a run of bad results. When this is the case, you have to get a result in a different way, for example by fighting hard and being compact. I think we did that well today. Wolfsburg were more dangerous in the opening stages, our passing game wasn’t at its best and we made a few unnecessary mistakes. We changed how we pressed them and then won the ball back well for our opening goal. That gave us more security.
Niko Kovac: Today’s game went how we obviously didn’t want it to. I think we played really well in the first half. We dominated Gladbach, but an individual error led to them going 1-0 up and that was really frustrating. We started the second half well and had a great chance to equalise. My team unfortunately couldn’t show signs of coming back after their second goal.
VfL Bochum 2-3 VfB Stuttgart
Thomas Letsch: “Congratulations to Sebastian Hoeneß and VfB on the win. The first half was a game without many chances to score. Stuttgart presented us with challenges, but actually little happened. The main criticism today is the way we conceded goals. That was better in the past games. We were far too discouraged when we had the ball and played long balls unprepared. VfB were slightly overweight, but for me it was a classic 50-50 game. When you get three goals at home, it’s hard to score. We missed a big chance, but it doesn’t knock us out. The relegation battle will go on for a while, with the usual suspects.
Sebastian Hoeneß: “We started the game very positively. We showed good structure and sharpness. We managed to keep the opposition away from goal and scored with one of our first chances. We didn’t finish many situations clearly enough, but we always created danger. Our reaction after the 1-1 was outstanding. Those were two very good crosses and well-played goals. We almost missed closing the game. We are all the happier about the win. That was a big point.”
Hoffenheim 2-0 Schalke
Pellegrino Matarazzo: “Our first half was good and would have been even better had we taken our chances. I wasn’t happy with our performance at the start of the second half. We didn’t manage to keep the ball at all in their half. Our substitutions provided us with some stability. Overall, it was a deserved win for us and it will give us some real confidence going into the coming weeks. The table looks a lot better than it did three matchdays ago, but we have to keep on performing every week, otherwise we could have trouble again.”
Thomas Reis: “We weren’t at the races in the first half and were far too passive. Only our fans were fit for the Bundesliga. We let Hoffenheim knock the ball about and they had a few decent chances. The first half wasn’t good enough for a side fighting for survival. The opponents wanting to get stuck in more than us is something that I can’t accept. You have to show a better mentality if the opponents have more quality and I didn’t see that from my team in the first half.
“We tried all we could in the second half, but then came the penalty that had to be retaken. We had one or two chances to get back in the game, however over the whole 90 minutes we weren’t good enough to get anything.
“Even though today’s defeat hurts, we have to simply keep on going. We’ve got a really important game next on Friday and we really want to win it – and perhaps need to in order to stay alive. I’m confident that we will show a different side to ourselves at home.”
