De Bruyne: 'Guilavogui bet the coach he'd score!'
Hamburg - VfL Wolfsburg's excellent form continued on Matchday 28 with a 2-0 win at Hamburger SV, although they were put on the road to victory by an unlikely source, as Josuha Guilavogui, who by his own admission "never scores", notched his first Bundesliga goal for the club.
VfL Wolfsburg
As he revealed after the game, Guilavogui had an extra motivation to find the back of the net, having laid a wager with head coach Dieter Hecking. bundesliga.com rounds up the post-match reaction...
Kevin De Bruyne: "We worked really well in defence and didn't give anything away - it was definitely an improvement at the back compared to our last game. For 80-85 minutes we had control of the game and it was a really good performance from us. It's not easy to play every three days but everyone that comes is doing a really good job for the team. [On Josuha Guilavogui's goal] He made a bet with the coach that if he scored, the coach would pay him something, and he's scored already so were all really happy."
Josuha Guilavogui: "I'm really happy. We won today and we were very, very good. This was probably the first game where the opposition had no chances to score, so that's a good feeling. It wasn't an easy game. We spoke with the coach a lot during the week and we knew we have to win games, because teams like Gladbach and Leverkusen keep on winning. So if we want to stay in second, we need to keep winning too, not just at home but away as well. [On his goal] Everyone was laughing because even in training I never score, so today I'm really happy and I have to say thank you to Bas. [On his bet with Dieter Hecking] I can't say! I prefer to say nothing, it was just a joke (laughs)."
Bas Dost: “We didn’t really allow them any goalscoring chances and there wasn't one moment when I thought we wouldn't win today. I haven’t scored for a while, though, which annoys me a bit. The coach told me to keep working and believing that I’ll find the net again. Unfortunately it didn’t happen today.”
Daniel Caligiuri: "From the first minute we were right in their faces and we really got stuck into the tackles well. I think the victory is fully deserved."
Diego Benaglio: "We knew Hamburg would be up for the fight, but from the first minute we got stuck into the challenges and we barely gave them a sniff. On top of that we were also able to implement the game and the tactics we wanted to play. I think it was a deserved and convincing win."
Hamburger SV
Heiko Westermann: “It was important to speak with the fans [after the game]. We all have to stick together in this difficult phase. [Our fans] always offer us great support. We still have a number of games in hand. You mustn’t forget we played against a side that are in top form at the moment, it’s of course they’re tough to play against. It’s up to us players to do better. We have to make sure this fantastic club stays in the Bundesliga.”Lewis Holtby: “I can’t explain why we were so spiritless in the second half. We didn’t show a good reaction to going behind. We’re playing Werder Bremen in the derby next week where we have a new opportunity [to win]. Derbies aren’t normal Bundesliga games so we have a 50-50-chance of winning. We need to stick together, even in a period as touch as this. We've got teams coming up who are down there and scrapping with us, and those are the games in which we need points. Nobody here wants to be relegated and neither do I with a club great as this, so we have to give it everything we have."
