Christoph Kramer speaks about the 4-1 victory in Hoffenheim, Jonas Hofmann and the season so far.
Chris, you suffered a head injury during the game in Augsburg on Wednesday night. How are you now?
Kramer: I’m all good now. I wouldn’t have played yesterday if I hadn’t have been okay. I did a number of medical tests beforehand to make sure – it’s a very important thing. There were no risks to my health, so I was thankfully fit to play.
We finally got our first away win at the ninth attempt this season. How much of a weight has that lifted off your shoulders?
Kramer: It gets in your head when you read every week that you can’t win away games. That’s why I’m really happy that we’ve finally got an away win so that we can forget about that chat now. Ending the busy week with such a great performance was nice too after two defeats.
What was the key to victory?
Kramer: We improved on a lot of things we didn’t do well in Augsburg. We covered a lot of ground, had good periods of possession and played at a high intensity. Going 2-0 up obviously gives you a boost too.
The Foals controlled the game for large parts, but it was a bit nervy at one stage towards the end. How was that for you?
Kramer: We knew that Hoffenheim would build more pressure in the second half. They played a number of long balls and one always gets through. They were on top for a 15-minute period and scored during that spell as well. We managed to calm things down after that with a lot of possession and then got another goal ourselves.
Jonas Hofmann’s brace set the team on the way to victory. How do you think he played?
Kramer: I can’t explain what’s happened to Hoffi over the last two years. He’s simply so clinical in front of goal at the moment. I don’t want to say that too loudly in case it stops being the case! If I were clean through in front of goal 100 times, I’d score once, but Hoffi just scores every time. He always makes the right decision, chooses the right corner and that’s such a great quality to have.
Borussia have 25 points after 18 games. How would you rate the season so far?
Kramer: I would have taken this points tally before a ball was kicked. You can’t forget that we had a very complicated season last year. We started really well, but our expectations probably grew too much for a while. We’re in the middle of a rebuild and our aim for this season has to be to be one big family with the fans, regardless of our position in the table. We’re on the right track for that.
