"The time had come to score a goal"

"The best goal was definitely the free-kick against RB Leipzig, especially as it was also my first goal for the first team. The feeling was indescribable. I was standing next to Andrej, who normally takes the free-kicks from positions like that. But the discussion about who gets to take it was much shorter than expected. (laughs) I cautiously asked if I could take it, and told him that I had a good feeling. But he had seemingly assumed that I was going to take it in any case. He then said that he would put the ball down and make it look like he was going to take the free-kick. It made me feel really good to know that he trusted me like that. After I struck the ball, I thought at first that it would miss the target, as it took a really wide flight. But then it curled perfectly at the last moment, going in off the inside of the post. At that moment, all I could think was: I've finally scored my first goal. It felt incredible straight away.

Then I immediately thought that I could finally do my goal celebration, which I had been thinking about for a long time. I wanted to run to the corner flag, but there were so many emotions going through my head, and the team all came running to me. I had originally planned to jump onto the fence for my first goal. But you get a yellow card for that, so I changed my plans. But the time had come to score a goal, I was hoping it would happen sooner. (laughs) I'm a good finisher, but for whatever reason it took me a while in the Bundesliga.

But I kept at it and knew that the moment would come. Fortunately, a few more goals have now followed. I still get a lot of criticism for the chance against Schalke two years ago, which I completely fluffed, so it was all the more important to prove that I can also score goals in the Bundesliga. I scored two goals in the first half of the season and I've now set myself the target of scoring four in the second half. It's great that I've already netted in the games against Bremen and Bochum."