Herrmann: 'It could be a great season for us'
Mönchengladbach - Borussia Mönchengladbach helped coach Lucien Favre celebrate his 57th birthday in style with a 3-1 home victory over TSG 1899 Hoffenheim to continue their unbeaten start to the season and simultaneously hand the visitors their first defeat of the campaign.
Borussia Mönchengladbach
bundesliga.com
rounds up the reactions of some of the game's key protagonists...
: I think we made the most of our chances really well today, especially in the first half, and that helped us get our goals. We created lots of opportunities and we deserved to win. It was great day. I set up Andre for the first goal and he paid me back by creating the second one for me, he did really well. Andre [Hahn] made a superb run and put the ball into the box so all I had to do was get a foot on the end of it. We can’t start thinking about our position in the table - it didn’t do us any good last season. We just need to keep working as we have been until now, keep playing well and then it could be a great season for us.
: Football is my life, it’s my passion, so whenever I’m out on the pitch I give everything. Off the pitch I’m a bit quieter, so there is a bit of a contrast there. [At half time coach Lucien Favre] told us to just keep playing as we were because we were doing really well. He told us to keep things tight in the middle of the park, to keep working hard at the back and that if we did that then nothing would go wrong. He was right. We want to win every game. We’ve got a big squad and that’s helped us a lot already this season. It doesn’t matter who plays; everyone gives 100 per cent and it’s working really well.
TSG 1899 Hoffenheim
: It was difficult. In the second half we kept plugging away at them but just couldn’t get through, as we were lacking a decisive final ball. That meant we hardly had any chances to score - we were much better before the break but afterwards I don’t think we were as good. After their third goal I was very annoyed because there were two or three Gladbach players completely unmarked. It was obvious he [free-kick taker Havard Nordtveit] was going to shoot as he’s done that a lot in the past. I parried the ball back out but then we hadn’t nobody there, which shouldn’t happen.
: In the first half we conceded two goals on the counter and after half time we conceded quickly again, which meant they kept things very tight at the back. We didn’t play badly in the first half and created some chances. Overall I think it was a match between two evenly-matched teams, even if Gladbach had the better chances. Like Kevin Volland I was taking part in the bet [of not shaving until the team lost], so tomorrow the beards will come off.
