Germany international Julian Brandt scored his first ever goal in the Champions League as Bayer Leverkusen beat AS Monaco 3-0. At just 20 years and 219 days old, Brandt becomes the youngest player in the club’s history to score in the competition. With Bayer already through to the last 16, Brandt will have the opportunity to get his next goal in the tournament in the next round of the competition.
The winger put in a strong performance against Monaco and drew praise after the match. In an interview with DFB.de, Brandt speaks about overcoming his poor form, the match with FC Schalke 04 on Sunday and the penalty that led to the own goal.
Interviewer: Did you laugh after the penalty?
Julian Brandt: I did actually. We were all laughing on the bench.
Interviewer: Is it ever the case that the bench chooses who takes the penalty?
Brandt: No. It’s made clear before the game who will take it. Wendell took a few penalties in training and he hit it brilliantly. The first thing you have to do is to get the keeper on his back to score (laughs). The main thing is, it went in.
Interviewer: Both teams started with a lot of new players. Was it still a game that you could play in with confidence?
Brandt: It was a good match for us to experiment a little. Vladlen Yurchenko had not played for a long time due to his injury and played well today. Stefan Kießling was also back in the side. It was good to give these players some game time in order to take a look at which other options we have in the squad. The boys did that all really well and that’s positive for us looking ahead to Sunday.
Interviewer: That really is a key match.
Brandt: Absolutely. Schalke are not far off us in the table, so it’s a duel with a direct competitor. That means that when you look at the top half of the table, there are a few points to drop and we want to fight against that with confidence. We still have three games to go and we want to get nine points. That is the aim going up to Christmas. It’s definitely not been perfect since the start of the season but that would be a decent way to end before the winter break.
Interviewer: Things are picking up again for you after a poor run of form, aren’t they?
Brandt: For sure. It’s always difficult when you’ve played in a tournament like the Olympics or the European Championships. When you get back, your intensity often then drops and that was the case for me, whereby I certainly had some bad performances over a few matches. Then you start to feel insecure about it and you become unhappy with yourself. But now I’m finding my form again and I feel much more relaxed. When you score again, it gives you something to work from. I’ve worked on that each game. I’m feeling great at the moment and I hope that that will continue in the next few matches.
Interviewer: Is there a team that you would particularly like to face in the quarter-finals of the Champions League?
Brandt: No, I’ve not thought about who we might get at all. It doesn’t bother me.
[mmc/sz]
###more###
Germany international Julian Brandt scored his first ever goal in the Champions League as Bayer Leverkusen beat AS Monaco 3-0. At just 20 years and 219 days old, Brandt becomes the youngest player in the club’s history to score in the competition. With Bayer already through to the last 16, Brandt will have the opportunity to get his next goal in the tournament in the next round of the competition.
The winger put in a strong performance against Monaco and drew praise after the match. In an interview with DFB.de, Brandt speaks about overcoming his poor form, the match with FC Schalke 04 on Sunday and the penalty that led to the own goal.
Interviewer: Did you laugh after the penalty?
Julian Brandt: I did actually. We were all laughing on the bench.
Interviewer: Is it ever the case that the bench chooses who takes the penalty?
Brandt: No. It’s made clear before the game who will take it. Wendell took a few penalties in training and he hit it brilliantly. The first thing you have to do is to get the keeper on his back to score (laughs). The main thing is, it went in.
Interviewer: Both teams started with a lot of new players. Was it still a game that you could play in with confidence?
Brandt: It was a good match for us to experiment a little. Vladlen Yurchenko had not played for a long time due to his injury and played well today. Stefan Kießling was also back in the side. It was good to give these players some game time in order to take a look at which other options we have in the squad. The boys did that all really well and that’s positive for us looking ahead to Sunday.
Interviewer: That really is a key match.
Brandt: Absolutely. Schalke are not far off us in the table, so it’s a duel with a direct competitor. That means that when you look at the top half of the table, there are a few points to drop and we want to fight against that with confidence. We still have three games to go and we want to get nine points. That is the aim going up to Christmas. It’s definitely not been perfect since the start of the season but that would be a decent way to end before the winter break.
Interviewer: Things are picking up again for you after a poor run of form, aren’t they?
Brandt: For sure. It’s always difficult when you’ve played in a tournament like the Olympics or the European Championships. When you get back, your intensity often then drops and that was the case for me, whereby I certainly had some bad performances over a few matches. Then you start to feel insecure about it and you become unhappy with yourself. But now I’m finding my form again and I feel much more relaxed. When you score again, it gives you something to work from. I’ve worked on that each game. I’m feeling great at the moment and I hope that that will continue in the next few matches.
Interviewer: Is there a team that you would particularly like to face in the quarter-finals of the Champions League?
Brandt: No, I’ve not thought about who we might get at all. It doesn’t bother me.
###more###
