Embolo and Choupo-Moting delight in Schalke's first win
FC Schalke 04 picked up their first win of the season by beating Borussia Mönchengladbach 4-0 on Matchday 6, thanks in no small way to their Cameroon connection up front.
Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting's penalty set them on their way before Breel Embolo, who was also born in Cameroon but represents Switzerland, bagged a brace. Afterwards, the pair spoke about the pressure that had been mounting prior to kick-off and how it now feels after finally getting the season up and running.
Question: Breel Embolo, you must have tanked up on quite a lot of self-confidence with these two goals in one game…
Embolo: If things are working with the whole team, then they also work for each individual player. We showed it against Salzburg on Thursday and now we've confirmed it. Things are going up steeply, and we want to keep it going this way.
The support from our fans was always positive and we wanted to pay them back with this first win Breel Embolo
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Question: You ran over to the bench to celebrate your goals…
Embolo: I ran to our kit-man Enrico Heil. Before the game, he predicted that I would score, and he had changed my studs for this game so that I wouldn't slip in front of goal. It helped and that's why I wanted to celebrate my goal with him.
Read what the other players had to say on the victory here
Question: You also covered your ears after scoring – what was that for?
Embolo: There had been so much said and written about this team from the outside, yet we have a lot of potential and we had been keeping calm, sticking together and working hard. The support from our fans was always positive and we wanted to pay them back with this first win, and fortunately we succeeded. Now we've got to repeat this and we've got to keep on working every day as we have been doing in recent weeks – with a positive attitude.
It was certainly a big message because we were up against a very good team. Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting
Question: How much tension was there before the game?
Choupo-Moting: Of course there was pressure on us. I knew when I stepped up to take our penalty that it would give us a huge boost to go in front. You saw then after we led 1-0 how much extra power we had. It was great that we then turned this into nice goals and, in the end, a deserved win which is an important step in the right direction. It was certainly a big message because we were up against a very good team. We saw that we've got the quality to beat practically anybody, but we also know we've only got three points and we're still far down the table.
Question: You mentioned the penalty – did you know that you were going to take it, with Klaas-Jan Huntelaar missing?
Choupo-Moting: I have been our dedicated penalty taker in recent games, but if somebody else had wanted to take it, I would have let them – we don't argue over things like that. I just had a good feeling, though, and I wanted to drill it in. I've converted quite a few in my career and I've got a good success rate. I've scored seven and missed just one against Bayern, and it was the second time I've beaten Yann Sommer from the spot.