“Really pulled together” | OneFootball

Markus Krösche, Dino Toppmöller and Mario Götze were pleased with their team’s reaction, despite the final scoreline. Here is what they had to say after the Eagles’ valiant effort away to Barcelona.

Board member for sport Markus Krösche: “It was important for us to play together as a team. We defended well against a very good side, had a few opportunities to turn defence into attack and also scored a lovely goal. The lads have been able to see that when we play as a team and when everyone sticks to the plan, we can hold our own with any opponent. If we play like that, we’re in with a chance to win any match.” 

Head coach Dino Toppmöller: “The reaction that the lads showed after the weekend was very good. We had a plan, and we implemented it. Our main focus was on what we could fully control, namely our formation, our effort levels and our readiness to work for one another. We came out for the second half with plenty of confidence and had a good passage of play. We were looking for that second goal. Then we regrettably let one in that was tough to defend against. At the end of the day, it’s annoying to concede from a set piece and lose the match due to that.” 

Mario Götze: “We knew how tough this match would be and that we needed to show some kind of reaction, and we certainly did that. Nevertheless, it’s annoying to look back on two goals conceded from headers. The second one shouldn’t have been allowed to happen. We defended well overall and compressed the play, much better than we had in our previous games. The team did well and really pulled together. We had to dig deep, and the first half an hour was played at such a high tempo. We had to clear the ball a lot and at the same time look dangerous up front. It was a good away performance.”