Klopp: 'We had to fight'
Munich - Borussia Dortmund coach Jürgen Klopp conceded his team's narrow victory over Eintracht Braunschweig on Friday was anything but pretty, while Pep Guardiola felt FC Bayern München produced their best football of the season so far in their win against Eintracht Frankfurt.
Eintracht Braunschweig 1-2 Borussia Dortmund
bundesliga.com rounds up what the coaches had to say following their respective sides' Matchday 19 outings...
Jürgen Klopp (Dortmund): We had a load of goal-scoring opportunities, but [Daniel] Davari pulled off some unbelievable saves. We haven't had many scrappy victories this season, but this one certainly was. If you're not completely focused, you have to fight for the win. Now we move on.
Torsten Lieberknecht (Braunschweig): I can't blame my team. We put up a great fight against Dortmund and performed very bravely. Our performance makes up in part for the big disappointment [of losing]. It gives us belief.
FC Bayern München 5-0 Eintracht Frankfurt
Pep Guardiola (Bayern): I'm very happy - that was our best game of the season so far. We were in firmly in control and created many opportunities to score.
Armin Veh (Frankfurt): We did all right in the first half an hour, but Bayern are in a different league. I've never seen a team as strong as Bayern in the Bundesliga. It's unbelievable, you have to admit it. The scoreline, though it was comfortable, is nonetheless acceptable.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen 2-1 VfB Stuttgart
Sami Hyypiä (Leverkusen): We didn't start the game very well and conceded an early goal, but there was more balance in our play compared to the defeats against Bremen and Frankfurt.
Thomas Schneider (Stuttgart): It's like Groundhog Day for us. We take the lead in matches, but always let the game slip away. It was a very tough afternoon for us.
FC Schalke 04 2-1 VfL Wolfsburg
Jens Keller (Schalke): We started the game very well and were in control during the first quarter of an hour. We didn't really let them have a sniff in the first half, but the key moment for us was the red card. We thought the game was won and went down a gear, but it was clear how much we wanted to win the game following the equaliser.
Dieter Hecking (Wolfsburg): We fought back well after going 1-0 down and could have equalised in the first half. We found our rhythm and won a lot of tackles. The sending off is a another story. We got the equaliser and we had a really good spell after that, but we were too offensive. If we'd left with a point, it wouldn't have been entirely undeserved.
Hannover 96 3-1 Borussia Mönchengladbach
Tayfun Korkut (Hannover): I have to congratulate my team for picking up where they left off against Wolfsburg. We knew it would be a very difficult game. We played very well in the second half and there was a great solidarity among out team.
Lucien Favre (Mönchengladbach): Hannover deserved to win the game, they're incredibly dangerous on the counter-attack. We were missing a bit of movement and speed in our play, and we also lost a bit of patience.
Hertha Berlin 1-3 1. FC Nürnberg
Jos Luhukay (Hertha): We should have gone 2-0 up before half-time. We just didn't make the most of our opportunities, but Nürnberg were able to take their chances and score the crucial second goal. A point was certainly a possibility today, but we now have to pick ourselves up tomorrow.
Gertjan Verbeek (Nürnberg): If you take into account what happened at the end of the game, we were lucky to win, but I felt our battling performance merited the three points.
