Patience and optimism

Mainz earned a 1-0 win away to SV Elversberg in the DFB-Pokal on Saturday night, despite some nervy moments at the end. The Mainz players are now looking ahead with positivity towards next weekend’s Bundesliga opener against Union Berlin.

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Dominik Kohr: "We played well for 80 minutes, which wasn’t always the case last season. Nonetheless, we should have been more comfortable at the end with the man advantage, we were slightly fortunate. We could have sealed the win earlier on. We’re feeling good before the start of the league season and today backed up our work in pre-season. I’m optimistic ahead of the tough game in Berlin. Babak did great today and we got the job done on the pitch as a team, even if it wasn’t all that simple at the end.” 
 
 Stefan Bell: "We were dominant and played high up the pitch, which we did even better after the break. We should have taken the lead earlier on, though we still remained patient. We were a bit too passive after the red card and defended from our own box – we can do better in that regard and could have avoided it becoming so stressful. We still feel like we’re a solid team because we didn’t have too many comings and goings. We need to work on our chance conversion and how we stop counter-attacks.”