Mönchengladbach's Granit Xhaka feels Gladbach deserved their win against Nürnberg after coming from behind at the Borussia Park
Mönchengladbach's Granit Xhaka feels Gladbach deserved their win against Nürnberg after coming from behind at the Borussia Park

Xhaka looking to extend winning run

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Mönchengladbach - As home records go, Borussia Mönchengladbach's achievements take some beating this term. Their latest success, a 3-1 triumph over 1. FC Nürnberg, means the Foals have now won all six matches on their own patch in 2013/14, scoring 20 and conceding just four.

It has been 26 seasons since Borussia last began a league campaign in such rip-roaring home form, back when they played at the old Bökelbergstadion. Now it's the Borussia Park that is fast becoming one of the most feared arenas in the Bundesliga, a trend which is delighting Borussia midfielder Granit Xhaka, as he revealed after the game.

Question: Granit Xhaka, congratulations on the victory. Was that your toughest home fixture of the season so far?

Granit Xhaka: Absolutely. We have to give Nürnberg credit. They pressed us really well, especially in the first half. They shut the game down and didn’t let us into it. We struggled after we went a goal down, but then you saw the character in our team. We knew that if we scored one we could go on and win the game, and I think in view of our second-half performance, we deserved the three points.

Question: You personally seemed to have a tough time of things in the first half, with Makoto Hasebe making life difficult for you.

Xhaka: As I said, Nürnberg really got stuck into us, with Hasebe marking me and [Hiroshi] Kiyotake marking Christoph Kramer. They made it difficult for us to build any moves, especially in the first half.

Question: It must also be nice to have Juan Arango in your team?

Xhaka: Definitely. You saw again today that he’s just a class apart. His goal was brilliant, and he put a really dangerous ball in for the second.

Question: Were there times when you had luck on your side today?

Xhaka: You could say that, but we’ve also been unlucky in other games this season - that’s the way it in football. It’s probably fair to say that we were a bit fortunate. In fact there were a few dubious situations for both teams in this game.

Question: How important is it to be able to turn games around when the team isn’t playing at its best? Is that the mark of a team that can remain in the upper reaches of the league?

Xhaka: Yes, I think so. I think there's pressure on us at home because everyone expects us to win here. You saw today that not every game is like that, but we showed a good reaction again. What counts is that we’ve won.

Question: Can Gladbach keep this winning run going until the winter break?

Xhaka: Our target is obviously to win every game. We’ve won all of them so far at home, but sooner or later we will drop points here. We’re delighted to have won this match and we try not to think about going on runs. We’ll see how things go once the international break is over.

Question: But you must be hoping to go on a mini-run after having corrected your away form in Hamburg last week?

Xhaka: That’s true. Up until now our performances have been very good, apart from the fact that we hadn’t taken any points from our away games. But now we’ve won three in a row, which we haven’t done for a long time. That’s also something we’re very pleased about.

Markus Hoffmann reporting from the Borussia Park