“A dominant display” - Köln match reaction

We gathered the thoughts from the players and coaches after Borussia’s 3-1 derby win over 1. FC Köln on Saturday.

Jonas Hofmann: That was a dominant display. We played particularly well in the opening quarter of an hour; we pressed hard and rewarded ourselves with a couple of goals. When you lead 2-0 so early on away in Cologne, it certainly gives you a boost. Nevertheless, there were a few phases in the game where we allowed Köln to gain a foothold. It’s obviously very difficult to control a match for the full 90 minutes though. We defended well overall. We set out to improve certain areas after the first two games and we started the game strongly. I think it’s a well deserved victory.

Yann Sommer: It feels good to have finally got our season up and running. We could even have won by more if we had been more precise in the final third, but I’m just happy that we got the three points. You just have to win in the derby – no matter how.

Lars Stindl: We know how much the derby means in these parts and for our fans. Even if they couldn’t be with us in the stadium today, we were determined to give them something back so they could enjoy the weekend. The first two games didn’t go as planned, so we really wanted to get back to winning ways today. We showed our quality on the pitch and deserved to win. It feels good to have the first three points in the bag.

Marco Rose: We worked hard in training this week and talked about the things that didn’t go well against Union Berlin. Köln also played with a back-three and we dealt with it much better today than we did last week. We moved our opponents around more and managed to create space. We were also clinical in the final third and went 2-0 up early on. We could have seen the victory out a little better though.

1. FC Köln head coach Markus Gisdol: We weren’t alert enough at times and that made things too easy for Borussia. We didn’t get stuck into the tackles in the first 25 minutes and Gladbach were clinical. They barely allowed us any chances and deserved to win, you have to say.