Son: 'You need patience in matches like these'
Paderborn - Bayer 04 Leverkusen may have beaten SC Paderborn 07 by a comfortable-looking margin on Sunday evening, but the 3-0 scoreline at the Benteler Arena did not truly reflect the overall pattern of Matchday 24's penultimate fixture.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen
bundesliga.com rounds up the players' post-match thoughts after a closely-fought encounter in East Westphalia...
Heung-Min Son: "Paderborn defended very well and it was very difficult for us to break them down. You need patience in matches like these, and in the end we fully deserved to win by a 3-0 scoreline."
Gonzalo Castro: "It was clear to us before the game that we'd have to be very patient today. Paderborn are a very tricky opponent and they put in so much effort in front of their own fans in particular. They do everything to unsettle the opposition, but I think we coped very well and ended up scoring the opening goal at just the right time."
SC Paderborn 07
Christian Strohdiek: "We played exactly how we wanted to today - we wanted to be strong in the tackle and prevent Leverkusen from settling into their stride. We didn't give them a sniff of goal for the majority of the game, but then fell behind to a set-piece. We tried to take more risks after that, and I ended up making a mistake which led to the second goal. The 3-0 scoreline is very harsh on us, but Leverkusen are a top side who can make the most of chances like that. It's very disappointing for us as we didn't get the result we felt our performance deserved."
Florian Hartherz: "3-0 sounds like a very convincing defeat, but that wasn't the case at all. We fought really well until the 70th minute, but we conceded a silly goal from a set-piece. We also created lots of scoring opportunities. It was a very open game in my opinion and we gave everything after they went in front, but they took their chances extremely well and punished us. We have to learn from this, focus on our next game and make sure we get the three points."
Michael Heinloth: "Obviously I'm very disappointed. We played so well for such a long time - we simply had to take the lead during that spell. We should maybe even have won the game or at least have got a point. We went all out to get the equaliser and changed to a back three, but ended up conceding two more on the counter-attack. It's just frustrating that we've ended up conceding three goals again after such a good performance, but it can't be helped. We've just got to make sure we pick up points in our next game."
Check out Paderborn keeper Lukas Kruse being knocked out against Leverkusen on the Bundesliga's official YouTube channel:
