“Have fulfilled the ultimate goal”

“The height of the fall against a regional league team is very high. As a higher-class club, you have to win the game – especially us after our start. Overall, I’m super happy that we won this game and progressed. It’s good for the team to have won a competitive game. A lot of things were okay in the first half, but we fought well in the second half. But if you let your opponent breathe, it becomes difficult. And with a mistake in the second half we brought Teutonia back into this cup game. We lacked security there. Teutonia Ottensen also made a very courageous appearance. Congratulations to the Teutons for this achievement.”

“At the beginning of the game we tried not to allow much. Because you just saw the power and athleticism of the opponent. My team did really well, even if we couldn’t defend everything. So we got through the first phase well, but then conceded the two goals with a long-range shot and the penalty. The Darmstadt counter-pressing was of course brutal. Nevertheless, I am extremely proud of my team’s performance – especially because of the second half.”

“We are very happy that we won and progressed. In the cup, the main goal was to advance. And we fulfilled that. We showed a good first half and deservedly took a 2-0 lead, which was important against such an opponent. We could perhaps have made it 3-0 or even 4-0 earlier, but then we got into a short, small whirlwind after the break. We have to act more calmly. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a clean sheet win at the back. The goal conceded was of course a mistake on our part because we had to clear the ball long. So it ended up being a cup fight and we are happy that we won it. Overall, we played well and created good chances. I hope we can take this momentum with us now.”

“It was a deserved win. The most important thing is that we are one round ahead. It was also important to have a positive experience that we can hopefully take with us into the next few weeks. That was the positive moment we wanted today. Maybe we relaxed a bit after the 2-0 win and let Teutonia get back into the game a little. But we stuck to ourselves and carried on. It was then important to restore the old gap with the 3-1 win and thus stop Teutonia’s upswing.”

… about his long-range goal:

“Some people say the ball was sliced a bit… (laughs) I didn’t see anyone in front of me and thought I’d just hit the ball with confidence. It was a disgusting trajectory for the goalkeeper. I’m glad I was able to get the first goal today.”