“We went about it the right way” - Elversberg match reaction

We gathered the thoughts from the players and coaches after Tuesday’s 5-0 DFB-Pokal win in Elversberg.

Patrick Herrmann: Elversberg played some good football today, credit to them. They worked it out the back really well for a Regionalliga side. We made our moments count though and got the win. We of course had a little bit of pressure going into the game; you really want to head into Christmas off the back of a positive result. We went it about it in the right way though with a lot of focus. The red card made it even more difficult for Elversberg, but it was still a really good performance from the boys, just as we had planned. Now we can all relax and enjoy Christmas.

Lars Stindl: We went about the game very professionally because we were determined to end the year on a positive note. Elversberg played it out from the back really well at times, but we managed to get two early goals. After their red card, we didn’t just sit on the result – we looked to add a couple more goals. We thoroughly deserve to be into the next round. We have big aspirations in this competition, so we’re really happy to be in the last 16.

Marco Rose: First of all, I’d like to compliment SV Elversberg on their performance. After the red card around the half-hour mark, it was obviously extremely difficult for them, but until that point, they had really challenged us. We knew what to expect here, and even with ten men our opponents still put up a real fight. It was an important win as it means we’re into the next round and also because we haven’t had that winning feeling much lately. Now we can go into the short winter break in good spirits.

Elversberg head coach Horst Steffen: We had our game plan, however, we ended up going behind very early on. We could have equalised, but it wasn’t to be. We knew that we wouldn’t get many clear-cut chances. Borussia were too strong and once we went down to ten men the game was over. It would have been nice to grab a consolation goal in the second half. The lads put up some good resistance and tried to defend with everything they had. All in all, it’s a disappointing day for us because the game was over so early on. We wanted to keep the tie open for as long as possible and maintain the belief that we could go through.