Ilzer: "It's an immensely important win"

This is what the players and coaches had to say about the 3-1 win away to SV Werder Bremen.

Anton Stach: "The win has really done us good. We are all familiar with the table, and we know how close it was and still is. We wanted to make up for the game last week. The team were completely spent, but we held on. Our spacing wasn't right at the beginning, but then we improved it and dealt with it quickly as a team. Our plan was to press early and do everything together as a team. We managed to do that well, and that was the key today. We need to maintain that and keep the momentum going. We don't have any more weeks where we have to play three games, so there are no excuses. For me, today is a special day. I went to boarding school in Bremen and I used to look out at the pitch."

Tom Bischof: "Both of the goals in the first half were well-created from a good press. Scoring the second goal before half time was a good moment and made us feel positive. We showed a good response. During the week you could tell that we had a lot of steam to let off. It was a different atmosphere in training, and that did us good. Today we showed with our body language that we were up for a fight and we wanted to win. The first two goals were very similar, although my shot was a bit slower, but luckily it was still enough. Before the game, we had another look at the goals scored against Bremen in the last few games so that we felt good going into it."

Leo Østigård: "It was a tough start going a goal down so early. But we responded as a team and fought our way back into the game. We worked hard the whole week, and we secured the away victory like heroes. And from the first two goals you could see that we can play good football. It was very important to get these three points."

Christian Ilzer: "It's an immensely important win, and a good response to the game against Union Berlin. Even after the early concession, the team recovered themselves brilliantly. We scored the first two goals after pressing really well. Our game plan worked well. You need a good transition between the phases. In the second half we were sometimes too passive, but overall it was a very good away game. It was important for us to push ourselves when we did the basics well. We wanted to strengthen each other as a team. Even the early concession didn't throw us off, there was a very good energy on the pitch today. Of course, it's natural that there'll be some criticism after a game like the one against Union Berlin. Our performance really had me racking my brains, but now we've showed that there's another side to us. Now we need to bring some consistency to our game and finally get some better results."

Ole Werner (Coach SV Werder Bremen): "Overall it wasn't a good performance from us. We had a good first phase, we started playing well straight away, and even went into the lead. Then Hoffenheim attacked earlier than we expected, and we had the stuffing knocked out of us. We couldn't outplay their press, and that's why we conceded the goals. In the second half we actually started off well too, but after they scored again, although the game wasn't over yet, it took the energy out of us. We let our opponents into the game again, and that's why our performance wasn't enough for a win."