“The lads embraced the challenge”

1. FSV MAINZ 05 2-0 VFL BOCHUM

Jonny Burkardt: “We made the decision that I would start the match following training yesterday. I was able to complete full sessions on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and was feeling really good. I’m happy that I was able to do so well today and that I was fit for it. I might not be at 100% just yet, though, and that’s why I had to come off early. Missing that first chance really annoyed me, but luckily, I was able to score the next one. The game went well. It was important to be aggressive in winning the second balls and getting forward quickly after turnovers. It was a lot of fun today, even despite the pitch. We just had to keep fighting and keep at it, which we did well while also showing our superior footballing qualities, so we deserved the win today.”

Sporting director Niko Bungert: “Fourth place sounds good and is a nice place to be. Our points tally is the most important thing, though. It means we can relax, but not in the sense that we should take our foot off the gas – quite the opposite. The lads take each game seriously and, together with the coaching team, they’ve got themselves in the perfect condition to be able to deal with an uncomfortable opponent such as Bochum, who you can’t afford to underestimate. It was a little different today than it would have been against this Bochum side in December, who were more destructive with lots of long balls. The lads embraced the challenge. It felt like the ball was only in play for about 90 seconds across the opening ten minutes. We looked in control today, barely allowed them any chances, had a number of good opportunities ourselves, and deserved to win. No one inside the club is talking about making the Champions League. There is still more than half the season to go, and we’re all well aware of that. We’re playing the way we are without thinking about dream scenarios that are 18 matchdays away. It’s about staying focused and taking on every opponent with 100 percent commitment.”

Phillipp Mwene: “We’ve picked up where we left off last year. It was a hard-fought win against a Bochum side that really threw themselves into every challenge. It felt like there were 18 different guys down hurt today. It shows that we can also win games like these. After the first 15, 20 minutes or so, we had a good foothold in the game. Bochum try to disrupt your play, but we showed good resistance against them, were smart with when we went into challenges, had lots of chances to counter and saw out the game well.”

Dominik Kohr: “Bochum are in the thick of the relegation battle, so they were always going to fight tooth and nail. It’s no surprise that it wasn’t the best of games to watch for the neutral. We took the fight to Bochum today and battled hard for the second balls when our pressing forced them to play it long. We did that well and then played calm, composed football when we had a bit of time. Sometimes we were missing that final pass going forward, but we were incredibly focused from the first minute to the last and deserved to get the win.”