Match reaction to the away win at Schalke

Ole Werner: “The team’s performance today was enormous. However, you can’t afford to relax after taking an early lead. Going in front did allow us more space though, which we had been lacking in the last few weeks. The lads really played as a team today and that was a deciding factor. We were very aggressive without the ball and took our set-piece chances well. Our overall chance conversion was better than it has been in previous weeks. Our corner routines, which worked on two occasions, were executed very well today and things like that are difficult to defend. It wasn’t that Schalke did much wrong there, it’s just that we executed our routines very well.”

Ilia Gruev: “It’s a great feeling. To win against the league leaders in front of 60,000 in the fourth-last game of the season, and to do it with your boyhood club, is brilliant. You need to perform in games like these and that’s what we did today.”

Marvin Ducksch: “It’s a perfect Saturday, it couldn’t have gone better. I’m glad we got our reward for our efforts today.”

Marco Friedl: “We knew just how good a run Schalke were on, and we were expecting to be under pressure early on because they had the home advantage. Scoring first was a great way to get us into the game. It was obvious that we needed to put in a top performance, and we did that over the entire 90 minutes. All in all, it was a thoroughly deserved victory.”

Niclas Füllkrug: “It was a very successful day. We managed to do things which we had failed to do somewhat in the last few weeks. We started the second half brilliantly and took the first chance we got to make it 3-0. We showed our quality once again and played a perfect game. Above all, our defenders did an excellent job today to shut down Schalke’s attack.”

Ole Werner: “The fans’ support was excellent. It was a really exciting game and I think we did our bit to contribute to the fantastic atmosphere. However, to have the fans behind you in such an important game is always a huge help.”

Ilia Gruev: “To see the joy on their faces when Duckschi scored the third and then the fourth goals and we ran to the fans to celebrate shows the strong connection between the fans and the club. Things like that really push you on. The post-match celebrations were really fun, I really enjoyed them. We’re thankful to have fans like that.”

Marco Friedl: “Wonderful. It was an unbelievable atmosphere. The fans are brilliant and pushed us on during the entire 90 minutes. Many thanks to everyone who supported us today.”

Ole Werner: “We’ve got ourselves into a good position going into the final three matches. We’re still in control of our own destiny and that’s the position in which we wanted to be. Now it’s crunch time, and there are a lot of things which can be calculated - we can’t allow our standards to drop at this time. Therefore, our attention now turns to Kiel, and we’ll try and pick up another three points with a similar performance.”

Marvin Ducksch: “It was a huge step. We wanted to get back to the top of the league and stay in control of our destiny. Now we’ve got three more games to focus on.”

Marco Friedl: “This win by no means gets us over the line. We’ve still got three games to go and need to keep going. There’s still room for improvement.”

Niclas Füllkrug: “I think today was a real key match. Now we need to prepare well for the Kiel game and play with the same voraciousness that we did today.”