Neuhaus: "A thoroughly deserved win"

Florian Neuhaus answered the media’s questions after the 1-0 win in Bielefeld. The midfielder discussed...

…victory in Bielefeld: The three points were important and we managed to get them, so we are very happy. The manner in which we did it was good too, but unfortunately we made it a little difficult for ourselves. Our opponents wouldn’t have been able to complain if we had gone 2-0 or even 3-0 up earlier on, but at least we made sure to see out the game at 1-0. We wanted to defend the lead until the end no matter what. We managed to do that and also kept another clean sheet. That obviously makes us very happy.

…converting chances: We definitely have to work on our finishing. That makes everything much easier. If we use our early opportunities then Bielefeld have to come out. That gives us more space and we can then play our game better. Sadly we needed a little longer to score today, but we got the three points in the end and they all count the same. It probably goes without saying that it was a thoroughly deserved win.

…the half-time team talk: We stayed pretty calm at the interval. The coach said that we should keep doing what we were doing and not panic or start rushing things. He encouraged us to stick to the plan and we would be rewarded with a goal. Luckily, that’s exactly what happened.

...goalscorer Breel Embolo: Breel is a really important player for us and he puts in a crazy amount of work for the team. I am happy that he managed to score the winning goal today. He created it for himself. I think that it will do him some good personally and it will give him a boost for the next few games.

…sporting aims for the new year: In terms of football, I want this year to be as good as the last one, which went really well for me personally. In the Bundesliga we have already given away a few points in our early fixtures, so we want to get them back with good performances. Obviously we want to climb up a few places in the league table.

…the upcoming clash with Bayern Munich: We want to mix it with the best teams in the world. We’ve already done that in the Champions League and now the next big task is here in the Bundesliga. Bayern are probably the best team in the world right now. It’s definitely one of the highlights of the season, but we must not hide in this match.