Gladbach captain Granit Xhaka (l.) believes his side were worthy winners over Schalke in the Matchday 10 curtain closer on Sunday - © © gettyimages / Christof Koepsel
Gladbach captain Granit Xhaka (l.) believes his side were worthy winners over Schalke in the Matchday 10 curtain closer on Sunday - © © gettyimages / Christof Koepsel

Xhaka: 'We were the better team'

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Mönchengladbach - Borussia Mönchengladbach midfield strategist Granit Xhaka hailed his team's performance in a "deserved" 3-1 victory over FC Schalke 04, who were left frustrated after a third defeat of the season.

Borussia Mönchengladbach

bundesliga.com rounds-up the best of the post-match reaction from Borussia-Park...

Granit Xhaka: “We were aiming to close the gap on Schalke by winning here today, and we’re delighted to record our fifth straight victory. We were much the better team, especially in the first half. Schalke scored with their first real chance. The match was more evenly balanced in the second half but we still didn’t give much away. We managed to put our chances away at the other end and overall we deserved to win.”

Andre Schubert (head coach): “I’m very proud of my team. They were excellent and showed a lot of passion. We dominated in the first half and should have scored a couple more. We were a bit unsettled after the break but we recovered and fought our way back into the game.”

Oscar Wendt: “We played really well, especially in the first half – we were sensational. We always looked dangerous up front and we were solid at the back. Whenever we lost possession we always won it back a couple of seconds later, that was really good. Overall we were the better team so we deserved to win. You can see we’re back on the right track and are gradually returning to the level we were at last season.”

FC Schalke 04

Johannes Geis: “I’m really sorry that I injured Andre Hahn. That was never my intention. I got in touch with him after the game an apologised. Now I can only hope that he is able to get back on the pitch as soon as possible.”

Andre Breitenreiter (head coach): “Borussia started the match much better than we did but after the break we dominated and controlled the game. We were more aggressive in the tackles and carved out a few chances. There was a period where we could have even gone in front, but unfortunately we didn’t. It was really tough after we went down to ten men.”

Benedikt Höwedes: “Set-pieces often decide games like that but at the end of the day we can only blame ourselves for not doing things better. Gladbach were much better in the first half but during the break we addressed the mistakes we were making and improved after that. We played well after the break, created a few chances and could even have taken the lead. But then Raffael scored his free-kick and then we got the red card.”

Ralf Fährmann: “Both teams created chances during periods of the game. Gladbach took advantage of the set-pieces they were awarded. They were better in the first half, but we were better in the second 45 minutes. We just lacked a bit of determination to be able to take something away from here. I can only congratulate Raffael on his goal to make it 2-1. He took it [the free-kick] very well.”

Dennis Aogo: “On Wednesday [against Gladbach in the DFB Cup] we’ll need to build on our second-half performance. We created a few chances and had them on the ropes.”