Stindl: “We forced the equaliser”

After the 3-3 draw with Eintracht Frankfurt, captain Lars Stindl answered the media’s questions. The hat-trick hero spoke about...

…his assessment of the match: It’s hard to make sense of the match. We had definitely expected more than just one point, although obviously we will gladly take it now.

...the first half: We started the match well and had three good opportunities straight away – and then we scored the early goal, too. The Eintracht penalty that followed was really unlucky. Overall it was a really emotional and hectic match which was affected by one or two questionable refereeing decisions. The ball was still moving when they took the free-kick which led to their second goal – we pleaded our case but the goal still stood. We tried to shake it off but soon after that we had to deal with conceding the third goal as well.

...the second half: At half-time we said that we wanted to perform at the same level as we did at the start of the first half. That didn’t happen immediately, as it was really difficult to impose ourselves on a team like Frankfurt given the condition of the pitch. After the red card we threw everything at them once again. We tried to stay strong emotionally, match Frankfurt’s play and win the second balls. We forced the equaliser at the end and were rewarded for our hard work.

…his three goals: The last time that I scored three goals away from home was against Fiorentina in the Europa League. It is already special to score a hat-trick in the Bundesliga, but I am much happier that we managed to claim at least a point in the end.

…his last-minute goal: We were all really happy with the late equaliser. We put everything into this match. If we had played a few minutes more then maybe we could have even won the game. It all came a bit too late from us.

…scoring a header: I must say that I am still lacking when it comes to headers. But we work on them every week in training, even when we don’t have that much time. I am constantly trying to improve my heading and it’s nice to be rewarded for that work.