Leverkusen match reaction: “A deserved victory.”

Julian Nagelsmann: We could have gone ahead within three minutes. Then Leverkusen started hitting us on the break and we were too impatient in the opposition half. We lost the ball too quickly. But we had plenty of chances to go in front. In the second half we had the better structure and were more patient opening up the game. We played a lot more down the wings and the goal was very well worked. In the end, Leverkusen weren’t able to apply so much pressure. We are very happy to have won. It was a very interesting game.

Tayfun Korkut: Congrats to Hoffenheim. It wasn’t an easy game, but we played almost the perfect half before the break. All that was missing was a goal. We wanted to play aggressively and stay focused off the ball, and we had good moments when we had the ball. Apart from the lack of goals, I can’t say anything negative about my team’s performance. We were in the game and did everything we set out to. We had a enough chances. We ran out of energy a little after conceding. The team wanted to, but didn’t have the energy to get forward. We had chances to equalise at the end, which would have been deserved after our first half performance. In the end, goals decide games.

Sebastian Rudy: It was not out strongest performance of the season but we had more of the play in the second half and achieved more of what we wanted and that led to the goal. We lost the ball too much before half-time. We controlled the game in the second period and didn’t let them get on top.

Sandro Wagner: It may have been because of my goal, but the main thing is we won.That was so important today. I had not scored in a while so obviously it has been a good day for me. Leverkusen are a good team with a of quality. It was a tight game between two teams who both like to attack.

Ermin Bicakcic: We did not make the most of the space on the counter attack in the first half and we had to try and slow things down in the final third. We were better in the second half and could have scored more goals. In the end it’s a deserved three points for us. It was a good feeling to be out here again and even more so because we won. That just makes everything sweeter.

Andrej Kramaric: We played a lot better in the second half than we did in the first. We changed it up after half-time. It’s good we won the game and we want to keep going now. We have two weeks breaks and then hopefully we’ll be ready to go again.

 

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