We heard from Jonas Hofmann, Yann Sommer and Marco Rose after the 1-0 win against Leipzig.
Jonas Hofmann: You could see that both teams were suffering on the back of midweek games a little. We lost the ball cheaply a few times early on, but that can happen when you’ve got two ball-playing holding midfielders. On the whole, we defended very well; we brought our A-game at the back. Obviously against Leipzig you can’t prevent every attack from leading to a chance, but in my opinion we didn’t give them any - or very few clear-cut chances. I didn’t feel like we were going to concede the equaliser today, because defensively we threw everything we had at the game. We won a lot of aerial duels and you could feel the energy within the team, the desire to win this game and not give away the lead. All that in the special anniversary kit – that only sweetens the victory. I’m very pleased for Hannes, he deserved that goal – he was playing really well. He needed a bit of time to begin with, but he was confident on the ball and got stuck in. After his goal you could tell he grew even more in confidence. It’s nice that he was able to score this goal and take a step in the right direction as far as returning to top form goes.
Yann Sommer: It was an intense game, with just one goal the difference. You could tell, especially in the first half, that both teams had played in the Champions League midweek. We defended with great concentration, as did Leipzig, but both teams lacked precision going forward. We put in a great fight today and rewarded ourselves with three important points. We’ve got some tough weeks ahead, for which this win will give us a lot of confidence.
Head coach Marco Rose: It’s a good win and an important win for us. It was a tough game for both sides out there. At the start of the game, you could naturally see that both teams had played midweek and had tired legs. Nevertheless, both sides worked their way into the game - it was a balanced contest. We had one or two chances that were much more clear cut than Leipzig’s, although they had more overall. That’s why it’s such a well-deserved victory for me at the end of the day. We’re delighted with the win because we didn’t concede and worked hard to stay in the lead until the end of the game. Hannes got the chance to play against the club he arrived from and I know that he can handle situations like that very well -it motivates him. He took the chance with both hands and gave a fantastic performance. He showed today that he can be a valuable player for us and I’m very happy for him.
