“We want to knuckle down now”

Florian Kohfeldt wants to turn Werder's season from a 'good' one to a 'very good' one (Photo: nordphoto).
First Team
Saturday, 30.03.2019 / 19:27

Florian Kohfeldt allowed himself a few minutes to celebrate with the fans this afternoon. Werder are up into sixth place following their 3-1 win against Mainz this afternoon. Kohfeldt underlined the important of the victory: “We’ve had a good season so far, but we want to make it a very good one. We’ve given ourselves the chance of achieving our goal for the season. Nothing more. It’ll be a difficult final stretch and we want to knuckle down now.”

On the game:

Max Kruse scored two goals and got an assist against Mainz (Photo: nordphoto).

Ludwig Augustinsson: “We played some good football, but we could have scored more. Some phases weren’t so good, especially at the beginning of the second half. It was important for our goals that we won today.”

Milot Rashica: “It was really important to score the first goal so early. After that we were in control. In my opinion, we weren’t aggressive enough at the start of the second half, getting there too late. But we came back and made the difference with the third goal.”

Davy Klaassen: “We played badly for the first 20 minutes, despite the early goal. It really wasn’t good after the break! We were saved by Pavlas a few times. Mainz used the room that they got very well. They’re a team that can play really good football. But we used our chances well. It was perfect!”

Martin Harnik: “We didn’t play how we wanted at the start, despite the goal. We wanted to grab the game by the scruff of the neck and make the difference. Suddenly we realised that we were only counter-attacking in our own stadium. That’s not what we set out to do. We then used our situations well, but Mainz stayed in the game dangerously.”

Frank Baumann: “We obviously had a lot of luck with the early lead. Unfortunately we lost control of the game after half time. Mainz then deservedly got one back. Games like that are so close and can change quickly. After it went 3-1, I got the feeling that Mainz’s heads dropped a bit. We’re very happy with the three points, but we’ve got a lot of things that we still need to work on.”

Florian Kohfeldt: “It was a good game, but not a perfect one. I have to commend the team for how they played for long periods, but there were two or three where we allowed too many chances and made bad decisions. Mainz were aggressive but didn’t take the chances and just weren’t good with the ball. Overall it was a deserved victory in a game that could have turned.”

On the table:

Max Kruse celebrates with the Werder fans (Photo: nordphoto).

Ludwig Augustinsson: “We want to set the pace for our goal of getting into Europe. It’s too early to rejoice about sixth place, we’ve got too many games ahead of us that we need to get points out of.”

Milot Rashica: “We want to win every game, then we’ll see where that leads. Every point means something when the table is as tight as it is at the moment.”

Florian Kohfeldt: “We had to win this game in order to achieve our aim. I said that to the boys before and it worked. The recent wins don’t mean that it’s second nature now. It’s a lot of work every time. If you think it happens on its own, you’ll set yourself up for a defeat.”

Davy Klaassen: “It’s obviously a nice situation. A few weeks ago, we’d already been written off. Now we’ve won our home game against Mainz. In my opinion, it was a must-win game. You also feel the euphoria of the fans. They give us a lot of support, but we haven’t achieved anything yet. I already said a few weeks ago that it doesn’t make any sense to look at the table. There are so many teams really close together. We’ve set the bar high and we want to achieve our goal. Hopefully we’ll stay where we are now.”

Martin Harnik: “The win is very important for us mentally. We’re in the comfortable position of now being able to defend our position and we don’t need to look at the others. That’s obviously a good sign. We’re enjoying the current situation a lot.”

Max Kruse: “We can celebrate the win and our position in the table a little today, but that’s enough. The only table that matters is the one after 34 games. We still don’t have enough and we want to carry on winning.”

Frank Baumann: “We haven’t achieved anything yet. We need to carry on working and concentrating, we leave any points behind and we want to give our all in every game. That’s working very well for us at the moment. We won’t confirm anything until the end of the year.”

On the cup quarter-final against Schalke:

Niklas Moisander had to be substituted in the first half (Photo: nph).

Milot Rashica: “It won’t be an easy game as we’re playing at Schalke and the cup is always different to the league. We want to get into the next round no matter what.”

Martin Harnik: “I know Huub Stevens and I know what he can bring about. Together with Mike Büskens, it’s definitely an emotional duo. I would have rather played at home than at Schalke, but it’s always great to play in a cup quarter-final!”

Davy Klaassen: “We carry on on Wednesday against Schalke. It will be an important game. Now it’s about resting and preparing ourselves well.”

On Moisander’s substitution:

Florian Kohfeldt: “He had no direct pain, but we still subbed him off. I spoke to him after the game in the dressing room. It doesn’t look too bad and it looks like he’ll be available for the cup game against Schalke. I’m happy about that, as we’ve had a lot of injured and suspended players in the past few weeks.”

 

 
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