"A compact team performance"

Ransford Königsdörffer: As a team, we defended and pressed brilliantly. We have built a real togetherness. I am very pleased to have been able to help the team with my first goal of the season. It was a very important goal for me personally. I could have scored even more goals, and it feels like the hardest shot I’ve had went in. It was an intense, physically demanding game. We will get more and more accustomed to the new playing style. We want to press more and let less chances through.

Sebastian Schonlau: We won a lot of home games at the beginning of the season, but recently there were three defeats in a row. Because of that, getting a home win again obviously feels really good. We won the ball high up the pitch a lot and that led to chances. Through that, we put Elversberg under pressure, and at the same time kept them as far away from our goal as possible. We obviously still need a bit of time to take in more and more of Steffen Baumgart’s way of playing. We’ve only had one week together and despite that with our energy and intensity you can see Steffen written all over it. For me personally, everything held up today, I felt good and am confident that it will stay that way.

Robert Glatzel: We played a bit further forward and tried to play more direct. It was obviously that the style of play would change slightly under a new coach, that was a good first step to start. We got the fans on board straight away and sparked a bit of excitement. A new head coach always means a transition, especially because we had got used to the game system over two and a half years. We are still at the beginning, there is a lot of hard work ahead of us. The finish from ‘Ransi’ was great. We’re really pleased for him, he hasn’t had an easy season so far. Scoring the winning goal will do him good.

"The fact that we kept a clean sheet is obviously excellent" Matheo Raab

Matheo Raab: The most important thing is the win. The fact that we kept a clean sheet is obviously excellent. As a team, we defended incredibly well today – that starts from the front. With regards to taking our chances, we could still be even better, but all in all it was a good start. ‘Ransi’ finally got his just rewards today, we are really pleased for him. That we are all able to celebrate each other sets us apart as a team.

Noah Katterbach: I’m delighted to be able to play here at the Volksparkstadion again after ten months. We’ve now been working together with Steffen for a week, and it will certainly take time for everything to fit into place perfectly. We still need some time for that and we need to work hard on these things. It was important to keep a clean sheet today. We were focused on the defensive side of things in training this week.

Ludovit Reis: It’s a good and deserved home win. We had lots of energy and intensity during the game, especially with our pressing. We applied lots of pressure and ran a lot. The fact that we started with a win under the new head coach gives us a good feeling. It’s now all about building on this victory.

"The boys played at the highest intensity until the end." Steffen Baumgart

Steffen Baumgart: We’re pleased with the home win, which we achieved with a compact team performance. However, I’m not too pleased with our performance in general because one or two things were still missing with every single player. We witnessed a game in which everyone could see why you’re always warned about SV Elversberg. They’ve got a very good structure and consistently have good moments in transition. We were in trouble a few times in the first half and also could’ve gone behind. It was important for me that they boys played at the highest intensity until the end and kept pushing forward. As a result, we were able to force them into mistakes in their build-up play and that’s also how created our chance. We maintained this high intensity for 90 minutes, even though you could see at the end that we had run out of steam somewhat. We are even happier that we were able to hold onto this 1-0 lead, even if we had the necessary bit of luck once more shortly before the end of the game. 

Horst Steffen: I have mixed feelings. I had the feeling that we could hold our own here and we could have made even more out of our opportunities than we did. We allowed our opponents to have fairly regular chances with uncertain play on the ball. This was partly due to the opponent’s approach but also our own inaccuracy. As a result, I’m not happy with our performance, we can do better. We were able to keep the game open until the end and with a bit of luck we would’ve got an equaliser in the 88th minute, but that wouldn’t have been entirely deserved.