Schweinsteiger: 'My reception was really touching'
Munich - FC Bayern München's 4-0 victory over TSG 1899 Hoffenheim crowned a pleasing Matchday 12 all round for the Reds, and for midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger in particular, who was moved by the rapturous welcome the home crowd gave him when he entered the pitch.
FC Bayern München
bundesliga.com
rounds up the best of the post match reaction from the Allianz Arena...
: It was really touching to come on to such a reception from the fans and it was nice to be back on the pitch again, but even better that we won. All my hard work in the last few months was geared towards feeling that moment [returning to the pitch]. It wasn’t easy but I’m happy I was in the squad again and that I was able to play a bit. Hopefully that’ll continue. It was nice to get an assist and I’m delighted for Sebastian Rode that he scored. I’m not yet where I want to be in terms of fitness - I haven’t trained that much with the team.
: It wasn’t easy at all. Before we scored the opener it was difficult because we were up against a very motivated side who closed the gaps and were very aggressive in the opening period. They were very good at the start of the second half and we’re happy to have won three points at home. We’ve got a huge amount of quality in our squad. We’re always looking to improve and I think we’re on the right track to do so. We’re delighted Bastian is back. I hope Marco Reus’ injury isn’t too bad. It’s always disappointing when you get injured and I hope he gets well soon.
: We didn’t start the second half well. We forgot to play football for a spell - you need to keep the ball and we didn’t do that well. Obviously it was a sad week for us with the injury to Philipp Lahm but overall it was good to win. We’re not interested in what happens with other teams. We just want to keep pushing ourselves forward. We’re still in the Champions League and the DFB Cup and we have another five Bundesliga games before the winter break. Bastian deserved to get a reception like that. He’s worked very hard and is a really important player for us.
: I think the game was harder than the scoreline suggests. We misplaced a lot of passes in the first half and Hoffenheim had one or two chances that perhaps they should have done better with. We were a bit better in the second half and deserved to win in the end. We’re missing a lot of important players but we always manage to compensate for their absence. I don’t think we’ve ever had as many attacking players on the pitch at one time, but we were good and everyone knew what they had to do.
: I think [Schweinsteiger’s return] is good for us and good for the whole club because he’s an important player for us. It’s great that he’s fit again and I hope he can get back to 100 per cent again soon. We’re always happy when we win and it’s special when someone makes their comeback having been injured for a long time.
: It feels really very good to have scored my first Bundesliga goal for Bayern. It might not have been a decisive goal but you’ve got to start somewhere, and scoring it at home makes it twice as good. Hoffenheim were difficult opposition, as we expected them to be. They started strongly, putting us under pressure high up the pitch and we didn’t get to grips with that initially and maybe the final score looks more one-sided than it actually was.
TSG 1899 Hoffenheim
: We didn’t take our chances but they were clinical with theirs. If Adam [Szalai] had scored his chance or if we’d been better with the opportunities we created in the first 20 minutes then the game could have turned out differently. It didn’t work out and it’s frustrating to go home with nothing. We tried to take the initiative, we pressed them well and did manage to carve out some good chances though, so we’re on the right track and we just have to keep looking forwards now.
: It might sound a bit strange to talk about having had a good game when you lose 4-0 but it felt like we were good out there. Despite everything we went into the challenges well. The 15 minutes immediately before half time weren’t so good but apart from that we played well.
: After going behind our plan was to score the equaliser as quickly as possible. We had chances to do so but unfortunately didn’t take them. In the second half we played very well but they nevertheless scored another two goals, which just goes to show how good they are. Jonathan Stockitt reporting from the Allianz Arena
Relive Schweinsteiger's long-awaited comeback for FC Bayern, courtesy of the Bundesliga's official YouTube channel:
