Moerstedt: "We had a superb game"

Tom Bischof: "We knew that we were missing a lot of players, but we did well. It got tight again at the end, which was unnecessary. The very young players deserved to play in the Europa League for once. Anderlecht are a brutally good team, they have brutal fans and a brutal stadium. We've now played three or four good games in a row and we can build on that. After the first half, we told ourselves we had to keep at it, score a goal to really get back into the game. We managed to do that."

Dennis Geiger: "Wins are always good, they do us the most good. No matter what game, we always want to win. I'm happy for the many young players, what they can now experience with our fans. But we're already focusing on Sunday with the game against Leverkusen. It was very difficult in the first half, the opponents put us under extreme pressure and the crowd was brutal. We improved a lot in the second half, although it did get tense at the end. Hopefully a lot of injured players will be back by Sunday. Then we want to give it our all again."

Max Moerstedt: "We were hoping to qualify for the playoffs, unfortunately that didn't work out, but we had a great game. It speaks in our favour that two thirds of the players on the pitch today for us were trained in the TSG academy. They're all superb players, we fight for each other, you could see that today. That's why we didn't give in, even though it was really close at the end when our opponents gained momentum. But we deserved to win the game in the end."

Kevin Akpoguma: "We can savour the win for a moment, but then we have to focus on Sunday. Playing against a team like Anderlecht, with us having such a disrupted squad and so many young players, we showed what's possible when we stick together. At half-time, the coach changed our approach to Anderlecht's pressing. That meant we were able to break free of the press better and had more control of the ball. Defensively, scoring the equaliser before half-time was important because then we were more compact. That allowed us to get our counter-attacking game going. The two goals for 2-1 and 3-1 were great. After 4-1, we had superb control. Then our opponents brought in fresh players and we brought in the boys from the academy. But I'm proud that they were able to play in the Europa League. Not everything worked out, but they fought."

Christian Ilzer: "A lot of praise for both teams. I've rarely seen a game in which the momentum shifted so often. The first half clearly belonged to Anderlecht, but then we equalised at a good time. We then made some adjustments at half-time, which really paid off. We then controlled the midfield better. The goal for 4-2 caused another flurry of activity and the momentum changed again, but we managed to hold on for the win with many of the lads who made their debuts today. I'm delighted with the performance and the result, and also that we fought back in difficult phases. We leave with our heads held high; in the end, one point more was all we needed."

David Hubert (RSC Anderlecht coach): "It was a very difficult game. We can't really blame ourselves because we started very well and deserved to take the lead. We had other chances but didn't capitalise on them. Hoffenheim only had one real chance and they capitalised on it. There were then 10 or 12 minutes in the second half in which we conceded three goals. We should have acted more intelligently. That ultimately cost us qualification for the round of 16. The team fought their way back into the game, so I can't criticise them for that."

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