Post-Match Report
Reactions: "With passion, with fight, with desire"
Lars Ricken (to DAZN): "The first win of 2025 feels good. But it was also good against Bremen. These two games have shown how we have to go about it: with passion, with fight, with desire. We also played good football today. In the second half, we had a phase of 10 or 20 minutes that we had to get through – without allowing our opponents another major opportunity. It was an absolutely deserved victory. We would have liked to go straight through to the round of 16. Now we're taking on the challenge of the play-offs. We've reached an agreement in principle with Niko Kovac. He will take over the team on Sunday. Mike Tullberg will be in charge of the team in Heidenheim on Saturday. It was the right decision to work with him on an interim basis."
Mike Tullberg (at the press conference): "We made a good start to the game. Our plan with the ball worked well and we had good counter-movements up front with Maxi (editor's note: Beier) and Serhou (editor's note: Guirassy), where we were able to threaten the No. 10 space and the areas in behind at the same time. I was very happy with our work off the ball. Then we needed to make it 3-0 but conceded the goal for 2-1 and you could tell that the lads were getting a bit nervous. We then lost our grip for 10 or 15 minutes. But then we became more courageous again with our pressing and deserved to win 3-1."
Gregor Kobel (in the mixed zone): "Mike Tullberg has injected great energy from day one. He's done a good job. We need successes and we need to win games in order to get our confidence back. The goal we conceded was my mistake. I didn't do well there. It was very good that we held firm despite the phase that we're in. The team was there for me. The aim this weekend is to get our first Bundesliga win of 2025." (br)
