Meier: 'It'll go right to the wire'
Frankfurt - Alexander Meier felt Eintracht Frankfurt's second-half display in their 2-1 win against VfB Stuttgart merited all three points at the Commerzbank Arena on Sunday.
Eintracht Frankfurt
Tranquillo Barnetta and Jan Rosenthal also praised the Eagles' fighting spirit, which saw them strike twice in the final ten minutes, while Stuttgart's Martin Harnik revealed his team-mates are in dire need of a confidence boost after losing their eighth-straight league match. bundesliga.com rounds up the players' post-match thoughts...
Alexander Meier: I thought we started the game very well and created several good opportunities, but we lost our momentum a little bit after that and were second to every ball. We improved in the second half and Jan Rosenthal did well to get us back on terms, then we managed to score the winning goal just before the end. [The relegation fight] will go right to the wire, so we know we'll have to fight as hard as we did today for the rest of the season.
Tranquillo Barnetta: We fought right to the end, even though things weren't going our way and we were making a few silly mistakes. There have been several occasions this season when we've let the three points slip from our grasp in the closing stages, now we've managed to turn the game at the end.
Jan Rosenthal: When it came to my goal, I got the feeling something would happen and gambled. I could have passed to [Alexander] Meier, but was confident in my ability to finish the chance. Stuttgart had a few good opportunities, but didn't take them. Maybe they were a little bit nervous, but we did incredibly well to regain the initiative and earn ourselves the win.
VfB Stuttgart
Martin Harnik: We didn't say much in the dressing room [after the game], there are many disappointed faces. The disappointment and anger is very strong right now and it's a very difficult situation for us at the moment. I think it's more of a psychological problem right now - when you look at the clock and see there are only 15 minutes to go, you realise what a huge step it would be to win and everything becomes a little more difficult. Everyone knew that a draw would have been a small step forward, but their second goal was a knock-out punch.
Christian Gentner: We had a great chance to score the second goal, and Eintracht wouldn't have recovered after conceding a second goal. Those are the types of incidents that decide a game. We were a little too open after the equaliser. We should have just accepted a point.
