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Patrick Herrmann says Gladbach's season has been "phenomenal", although it still has to be crowned in the final two weeks of the season
Patrick Herrmann says Gladbach's season has been "phenomenal", although it still has to be crowned in the final two weeks of the season

Herrmann: 'We're in a comfortable position now'

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Mönchengladbach - Borussia Mönchengladbach have one foot in next season's UEFA Champions League group phase after their 3-0 win over Bayer 04 Leverkusen on Matchday 32.

With a five-point advantage over Saturday's opponents and only two games of the season remaining, everything is pointing towards the Foals wrapping up a top-three finish. Talking after the high-octane Rhineland clash at the Borussia-Park, goalscorer Patrick Herrmann spoke about Borussia's first home win over Leverkusen for over 26 years.

Question: Patrick Herrmann, congratulations on the 3-0 win and your 11th goal of the season. You quite fancy playing against Bayer Leverkusen, don't you?

Patrick Herrmann: Yes, it certainly seems that things go pretty well for me against Leverkusen. That was the case once again today. Of course I'm delighted that I've been able to grab another goal against them.

Question: In the end, it was a 3-0 win, but was it as easy as the result suggests?

Herrmann: Well, Leverkusen have a great team and it was hard work. They did a good job, but we held our own, were involved in the game and had our chances.

Question: You took a couple of nicely-worked free-kicks, and two of them led to goals. Was that something you had been working on this week in training?

Herrmann: More or less. My goal wasn't planned the way it came about, but when you're an attacking player then you've got to sniff out these chances and guess where the ball could arrive. So if it looked like it was all planned to perfection, then let's say that perhaps it was (laughs).

Question: Borussia are now five points ahead of Leverkusen. Granit Xhaka has just said that he's certain of Champions League qualification now. Are you just as convinced?

Herrmann: Well we all know Granit (laughs). But football's not always as simple as that. It's completely up to us, of course, and this was a big step for sure, but we've still got to wrap things up in our next two games.

Question: The fans are already singing about you ending as runners-up…

Herrmann: And they're allowed to do that too, but we've just got to take what we've got so far and be pleased with that. It was hard work today. I don't see second place as our objective. If we finish third, then we would already have exceeded our best expectations.

Question: How does this first win over Leverkusen since 1989 feel?

Herrmann: Wow, I wasn't even born then! It's a great feeling, particularly since it was such an important game. That makes it feel twice as good.

Question: Borussia have now beaten all of the top teams in the second half of the season – three wins out of three with six goals scored and none conceded. What does that say about your team's quality?

Herrmann: It shows that we can hold our own with the best. We've beaten many of them and picked up a lot of points and things have been going particularly well for us in the second half of the season. It's hard to describe in words, but it shows how good we are as a team right now.

Question: If you can hold your own so well against the top teams in the Bundesliga, how do you think you can get on in the Champions League?

Herrmann: It's been phenomenal. After the first half of the season, we all knew that it would be tough to repeat the number of points we got, and now we're doing even better. That's amazing.

Tobias Gonscherowski reporting from Mönchengladbach