Robben: 'I feel sorry for Mainz'
Mainz - Arjen Robben broke 1. FSV Mainz 05 hearts. With added time beckoning, Kasper Hjulmand's men were on the verge of a richly deserved draw, when the Dutchman arrived late at the back post to seal a 2-1 victory and remind the Bundesliga why champions FC Bayern München remain the team to beat.
FC Bayern München
bundesliga.com rounds up the post-match discussion from the Coface Arena...
Arjen Robben: "I’m very happy with the win but I feel sorry for Mainz. They fought so hard for 90 minutes and their fans were great, but sometimes football is like that. We weren’t that good in the first half, left too many gaps and didn’t get into the game, but I have to compliment the team. We came back and have won another game. We can't use the coming winter break as an excuse. We had to be professional for another 90 minutes. We can all go on our holidays with a positive feeling now."
Manuel Neuer: "It was a hard shift here. We’ve dealt with a few setbacks and for that reason it was great to turn the game around. It reminded me of the game we played at VfB Stuttgart last season when Thiago scored the winner. We wanted a positive result to end the year and you saw from my celebration how much it meant. It’s been a great year. The defeat to Real Madrid C.F. [in the UEFA Champions League] sticks out a bit but we’ve still had a great year and we want it to continue in 2015. Robben's winner was like a dream and we enjoyed it massively.
Thomas Müller: We always believe right until the end that we can win games. We have a great team but today was a really tough match. Mainz played well and it wasn't our best performance, but it's also nice to win games like that. They probably deserved a point but we had that bit of luck on our side. I'm looking forward to a holiday; I'll probably get a bit of sun and snow.
Bastian Schweinsteiger: "I'm not too bothered that the Hinrunde is ended, even as I was hitting a bit of form again. Saying that, I've been feeling better game by game and have been playing a bigger role. I can do everything I used to be able to without thinking about the injury and I feel really good."
1. FSV Mainz 05
Johannes Geis: "We were compact, competed really well and then we concede a goal like that. It’s really frustrating. We created some good chances against them, Manuel Neuer made two world-class saves. They didn’t have too many chances even if they did have a lot of the ball."
Elkin Soto: "It was a really good game from us. We put in a really good display and we can be proud of playing against a great team like Bayern in that way, but we're bitterly disappointed as we should have taken a point at least. I scored a good goal and it was a great assist [from Shinji Okazaki]. It's difficult now because we haven't won but we have to keep going. It's the winter break now and in January we need to go again."
