Rolfes: 'This was an important step'
Leverkusen - Bayer 04 Leverkusen's 1-0 victory over SC Freiburg may have been laboured at times, but it was thoroughly deserved. Die Werkself's first home win since November was notable not only for Simon Rolfes' first goal of the season, but also for Roger Schmidt's men moving into the top four for the first time since Matchday 16.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen
bundesliga.com rounds up the reactions from the BayArena...
Simon Rolfes: "As a defensive midfielder, you have to have a nose for those situations in front of goal. We didn't let anything past after taking the lead and it was an important step. Saying that, there have to be lots more important steps."
Gonzalo Castro: "I hope to be able to play against 1. FC Kaiserslautern [in the DFB Cup on Tuesday night]. The problems stem from the game against VfL Wolfsburg."
SC Freiburg
Julian Schuster: (speaking to Bild) "We didn't really play very well. With a better performance, we could have taken something. We didn't offer enough in the second half and didn't make it hard enough for Leverkusen."
Jonathan Schmid: "It's a bit of a shame [to lose] because I thought we played quite well. We were very compact in the second half. We didn't have enough chances, though. We'll prepare for the DFB Cup game in midweek now. Every game is different."
Roman Bürki: "It's a shame because we really tried to play with guts. We didn't give Leverkusen many chances, but unfortunately we didn't create many ourselves. We lost concentration once for their goal when the cross came in and Bayer made the most of it clinically. We're really disappointed with the result."
Immanuel Höhn: "We didn't put in our best display, but at the same time, we didn't give them many chances. It's really annoying that we missed the chance at the end, and that we subsequently didn't take a point."
