We gathered the reaction from Denis Zakaria, Max Eberl and the two coaches after Borussia’s 1-1 draw with Mainz 05 on Friday night.
Denis Zakaria: It was a difficult game for us. It’s never easy when you lose two key players to injury in the first half. It wasn’t a problem for me dropping into the back-three to fill in for Nico Elvedi; I’m happy as long as I can help the team. We were playing well at the end of the first half and took the lead. It’s a shame that we weren’t able to see it out, as we really wanted the three points. We didn’t create enough chances in the second half, but you have to give Mainz credit – they put us under a lot of pressure after the break and played well.
MaxEberl: We managed to keep up with the high intensity from Mainz, which is good to see – we have struggled with that in the past. We deservedly led 1-0 at the break, but Mainz upped the pressure in the second half and created a lot of chances. Yann made some great saves and played a big role in their equaliser only coming late in the game. It was an unstoppable shot. They deserved to level the scores, but nothing more, so it’s a fair result. It’s a step in the right direction for us that we were able to put up some good resistance; we had often lost games like that in the past. We now have 15 points and are right in the middle of a big midfield battle.
Adi Hütter: It was a decent performance in the first half. We took the lead, but we missed opportunities to add a second. Ramy Bensebaini could have scored a header, and then it’s 2-0 and the game probably goes in a different direction. Mainz had a lot more of the game in the second half and showed that they can play with a lot of passion, power and emotion. We missed an important part of our back-three in Nico Elvedi, not to mention Breel’s power up front. It was a very different setup for us personnel-wise, although Denis Zakaria did a fantastic job. We can be very pleased with the point given the circumstances.
Mainz 05 head coach Bo Svensson: I’m generally pleased. We started well and dominated the game. Then there were a few injury stoppages that broke up our rhythm. Gladbach were better in that phase and got their goal. We were disorganised and lacked discipline. The reaction in the second half was very positive though. We created a lot of opportunities, although Gladbach’s goalkeeper kept almost all of them out. When you take the 90 minutes as a whole, I think that a win wouldn’t have been undeserved.
