Drmic: 'The dam has been broken now'

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Leverkusen - There was joy unbound in the Bayer 04 Leverkusen camp following their 5-1 thrashing of Rhineland rivals 1. FC Köln, who lamented an unusually sloppy defensive display.

Bayer 04 Leverkusen

bundesliga.com rounds up the best of the post-match reaction from the BayArena...
Josip Drmic: I’ve always given my all here and today I was given more playing time. You could say the dam has been broken now [after scoring twice]. It’ll do me a lot of good and I’m certainly relieved after scoring both goals. It’s a great feeling.

Sebastian Boenisch: It feels really good to have won the derby. Today's result was definitely earned. The game didn't start so well for us with the penalty and then there were a few nervy moments in our own box. Fortunately, we kept our heads, even though we didn't dominate as we would have liked in the first half. We played well up until their box where we couldn't quite find the finishing touch, but in the second half we approached things much more simply.

Hakan Calhanoglu: I took a long time setting myself to take that free-kick. I'm good at hitting that corner.

Karim Bellarabi: I think derbies are always special games, particularly for the fans, but I think all that matters for us was getting the three points and keeping up with the leaders. It was a pity to concede an early penalty, but we fought back and we knew we would win in the second half.

Tin Jedvaj: It was really good and the fans were amazing, both on our side and their side. Now we move on to the next game and hope to win again.

1. FC Köln

Matthias Lehmann: The last two goals they scored were my fault. With the first one I wanted to slide tackle him and play it back but it fell right into [Drmic’s] path. It was my misplaced pass that lead to their fifth goal: both were clearly my mistakes which is very disappointing, both for us and the fans, who created such a great atmosphere. Things could have turned out differently but this defeat really hurts a lot.

Dominik Maroh: Playing with a three-man backline worked very well until they went 2-1 ahead. The first half was really enjoyable. We defended well and didn’t give them many chances, apart from the free-kick. We shouldn’t concede so many goals late on though. We’ve played very well defensively over the last 18 months, but today was the exception.

Bellarabi:

'Important three points!'