As the referee blew the final whistle, the celebrations escalated inside the Weser-Stadion following Werder’s 1-0 victory over Frankfurt which saw the Green-Whites stay in the league. There was a mixture of joy and relief from the fans after the fate of the Bremen club was decided in the dying seconds of the match. "It’s been a tiring week for all of us but we are now relieved and proud," said Thomas Eichin after the match.
Despite the celebrations after securing safety, Eichin looked forward to Werder’s future. "We need to do a lot of things better next season. In the second half of this season we played well and picked up points. We need to do that over a whole season."
Zlatko Junuzovic: "For long periods we were unable to find gaps in their defence. Frankfurt wanted to keep it at 0-0 and kept it tight but we created the chance and rewarded ourselves for doing so. We then kept our concentration for the remainder of the game and didn’t concede."
Thomas Eichin: "We tried to make the right decisions from the bench. We had to play good offensive football so we told Tony to warm up and then to go and get his goal."
Papy Djilobodji: "We needed the win tonight and that’s exactly what we got. We did it. It was exciting at the end but that was the story of the whole match today. Frankfurt played well and defended their goal throughout."
Felix Wiedwald: "We were never in doubt of not staying up. Frankfurt were playing for the draw and it was really only a question of time as to when we would get the goal. We always knew that we would get the goal that we needed. Hopefully I can continue my clean-sheet streak into next season."
Florian Grillitsch: "We always believed we would get the win. It doesn’t really matter who got the goal in the end. There was a lot of pressure on both sides – neither wanted to get relegated and we gave our all in order to avoid that. We knew that we would have to in the last few games."
Viktor Skripnik: "We never doubted that we would be able to do it, even though you can never really predict it. We didn’t go mad with attacking in the first half and we opted for some fresh legs: Ujah and Yildirim. We got the win and now we can build on it."
Zlatko Junuzovic: "The weight of this season went off in that moment alone. Moments like these are something that a footballer really only experiences once r twice in his life. It’s unbelievable. I can’t find the words to describe it."
Florian Grillitsch: "The burden has been lifted. After the goal I went on the fastest sprint I’ve ever been on. This is the best moment of my short career and now we can happily have a break over summer."
Papy Djilobodji: "I don’t know whether it was my goal or not. If so then it was my best ever. I can’t even remember the moment, just that the ball went in somehow. We got the win together today. Now we can celebrate."
Viktor Skripnik: "It was a great atmosphere that gave us at least an extra 20% energy."
Anthony Ujah: "The support was fantastic. I’m happy for the fans."
Thomas Eichin: "The fans were amazing again today, as we already knew. They’ve supported us over the whole season and it would’ve been fatal to go down. Bremen has a population of about half a million, but it felt like we had about double that behind us today. The three points from today belong to the fans."
Anthony Ujah: "We didn’t want our gameplan to be known, just that we were focused on our own performance. Now we’re going to party, party, party, right through until seven in the morning!"
Zlatko Junuzovic: "There’s no plan, we’ll have to just see where the night takes us! We’ll party all over the city!"
