“This togetherness has been our trademark this year”

Ludovit Reis: The most important thing is that we won this game, but I’m obviously also very happy to have made my first start after a long time out with injury. I felt good. I’m finally back at 100 percent again, and I’m fit and fresh. That just feels great. As a group, we showed that we’re a strong team. We also showed how we want to play and that we want to give 100 percent. In my opinion, we did that perfectly. We’re always concentrating on the next game though. We’ve got another difficult task ahead, so we need to keep working and give 100 percent once again.

Davie Selke: The service I get from my teammates is amazing. I’m just happy to be here with this squad, to be brought into play by the lads and to be turning the chances into goals. I’m the kind of player who needs that and needs to profit off assists. It was an important win in terms of the table, and also a very good performance. It was also a win for Merlin [Editor’s note: head coach Merlin Polzin was unable to be at the match due to illness]. Everyone who knows him knows how passionate he is and how much he would have wanted to be there. This togetherness has been our trademark this year, and these kinds of performances are the result of that.

Fabio Balde: I’m very happy to have scored my first goal here at the Volksparkstadion. I was able to show my ability in a one-on-one situation, after Marco Richter saw my run and set me away with a good pass. I’d also like to thank our rehabilitation coach Sebastian Capel, who helped me back to fitness after my tendon injury and allowed me to be a part of this fantastic group again today. We played brilliantly. Even before I came off the bench, it was great fun to watch. Everyone wants to give everything and you could see that today.

“These fans and their support were just incredible” Adedire Mebude

Adedire Mebude: I’m very happy to have made my first start today, and it’s amazing that it came in a win like this. The atmosphere was the most impressive thing for me. You can’t prepare yourself for an atmosphere like this. You just have to experience it. It was absolutely fantastic for me, because these fans and their support were just incredible. They were behind us from the first to the last. I thought we played very well as a team too. The goals were really well-crafted, and we deserved the win against a strong opponent.

Dennis Hadzikadunic: I’m really happy that we’ve won this game. It was a very good performance all round, from the coaches, the team and the players who came off the bench, and right up to the fans, who were incredible once again. There’s a very good atmosphere within the team, and we work together well in both defence and attack. This was just a really good team performance, which I’m delighted with. We can now enjoy this win for a bit, but then we’ll start preparing for the next game in Paderborn.

“The players who came off the bench also gave us a lot of energy” Jonas Meffert

Jonas Meffert: I think we played really, really well from the start to the end, and from back to front. The players who came off the bench also gave us a lot of energy. The fans were great again too, as was the pitch, which I’d also like to give a mention to today. Such a good playing field is vital for our game. We’re over the moon about everything today – how the game played out, the brilliant team performance and, most of all, the three points. It is only three points though, so now we need to keep on working.

Loic Fave: Our plan was to play our own game for the full 90 minutes. We were dominant in the first 30 and we had lots of attacks and corners, but we didn’t threaten enough in that time. We still took the lead after that though, and then we needed a bit of luck to not concede the equaliser. In the second half, we kept playing with determination, and we’re very happy that we got the win after 90 minutes on the pitch. Hopefully, we helped a bit towards Merlin’s recovery. We hope he’ll be back with us as soon as possible.

Markus Anfang: I’d like to congratulate HSV on a deserved victory. We played against an absolutely top team. We didn’t start well and were too passive in a lot of spells. We defended well to start with, but then HSV got that fully-deserved first goal. We then had two huge chances to get back in the game. In the second half, you could see the quality that HSV have. Their goals were just top quality. Their team is full of talent and they play some great stuff.