Salihovic: 'Penalties aren't that difficult'
Berlin - Sejad Salihovic appeared over the moon after bagging a brace in TSG 1899 Hoffenheim's 5-0 thumping of ex-club Hertha Berlin, while the home side were only too happy to draw the line under what has been a tough 2014 for all involved in the capital.
1899 Hoffenheim
bundesliga.com
rounds up what the key protagonists had to say after the Olympiastadion encounter...
“It's always very special for me to play in Berlin and I was obviously happy when the coach [Markus Gisdol] told me I would start. I think we did a good job. I have to say though that scoring penalties isn't the hardest thing to do (laughing). The first half of the season was pretty tiring for all of us so it's good that we can have a break now. I don't want to look too far ahead, though. We'll see what we can achieve in the second half of the campaign."
“No game is easy and today it was no different. We wanted to give it our all in our last game in 2014 and I think it was a good way to end our year. I'm really happy for Sejad that he scored two goals and also put in a good performance; we're good mates and it's obviously special for him to play against his old club. The whole team played well today, though. I believe overall we can be satisfied with first season-half. We don't want us to think of particular targets for the campaign and distract ourselves, however. We have to make sure we recharge our batteries in the next few weeks so we're at the same level when we play Augsburg at the start of the second half of the season.”
“We'd lost our previous two away games and they were a bit of a warning for us. We obviously benefited from their own goal and the lead helped us gain control. You have to be aggressive against Berlin, they're not an easy side to play against. We were up for the challenge and that was the key to our success. After those two defeats, getting three points in our last game before the break makes this result even sweeter.”
Hertha Berlin
“We didn't play well, which is why we deserved to lose. The own goal and the two penalties pretty much killed the game for us, and I think it was actually our worst game since I've been at Hertha. We have to make sure we come back stronger after the winter break. Personally I'm not overly happy with how things went during the first half of the season. I'll have to analyse that and find the reasons for it.”
“It had nothing to do with tactics; we just made far too many silly mistakes today. We were punished in the worst possible way and we have to make sure this doesn't happen again. I think the winter break comes at the right time. We can now look back at performances and change a few things so that we go into the second half of the season well prepared.” Felix Seaman-Höschele reporting from the Olympiastadion
