From going behind, to leading, to conceding an equaliser, to extra time and all the way to penalties – SV Sandhausen’s second round triumph over Bundesliga outfit SC Freiburg provided the fans with a memory that’ll last a lifetime. In that penalty shootout, goalkeeper Marco Knaller was the hero, saving two in a 4-3 shootout win (3-3 after extra time).
The day after one of the best games in his career, the former Austria U21s player speaks to DFB.de, revealing he used an internet database to find out about the opposition penalty takers.
DFB.de: Mr. Knaller, how are you doing just the day after your huge DFB Cup shock?
Marco Knaller: Good, thank you for asking. We went straight home after the game yesterday, you can imagine that the atmosphere was pretty good. Today, recovery was on the programme and we’re looking forward to the quarterfinal draw. From tomorrow, our full concentration will be on our encounter with Bielefeld on Friday night – we don’t really have time to celebrate. Everything is going very quickly but this unexpected result gives us momentum for the coming weeks.
DFB.de: Who do you hope to face in the quarterfinal?
Knaller: I don’t really mind. The most important thing is getting a home tie, hopefully against a Bundesliga side – that would be great.
DFB.de: What was the game against Freiburg like?
Knaller: It was a rollercoaster of emotions. We obviously didn’t want to go a goal down so early. But we came back well and then went into a 3-1 lead. To be honest, I thought we were home and dry and that point. But then we sat a bit too deep and invited pressure. In hindsight that was a mistake. It gave Freiburg a chance in extra-time.
From going behind, to leading, to conceding an equaliser, to extra time and all the way to penalties – SV Sandhausen’s second round triumph over Bundesliga outfit SC Freiburg provided the fans with a memory that’ll last a lifetime. In that penalty shootout, goalkeeper Marco Knaller was the hero, saving two in a 4-3 shootout win (3-3 after extra time).
The day after one of the best games in his career, the former Austria U21s player speaks to DFB.de, revealing he used an internet database to find out about the opposition penalty takers.
DFB.de: Mr. Knaller, how are you doing just the day after your huge DFB Cup shock?
Marco Knaller: Good, thank you for asking. We went straight home after the game yesterday, you can imagine that the atmosphere was pretty good. Today, recovery was on the programme and we’re looking forward to the quarterfinal draw. From tomorrow, our full concentration will be on our encounter with Bielefeld on Friday night – we don’t really have time to celebrate. Everything is going very quickly but this unexpected result gives us momentum for the coming weeks.
DFB.de: Who do you hope to face in the quarterfinal?
Knaller: I don’t really mind. The most important thing is getting a home tie, hopefully against a Bundesliga side – that would be great.
DFB.de: What was the game against Freiburg like?
Knaller: It was a rollercoaster of emotions. We obviously didn’t want to go a goal down so early. But we came back well and then went into a 3-1 lead. To be honest, I thought we were home and dry and that point. But then we sat a bit too deep and invited pressure. In hindsight that was a mistake. It gave Freiburg a chance in extra-time.
DFB.de: At this point momentum was definitely against you. How did your head coach react at full-time?
Knaller: He emphasised how well we played until we conceded again. Obviously we were down at that point because we should have won the game in regular time. But we thought that we were the best team on the day and we wanted to show that in extra-time. We spoke about only looking ahead and not back. We were not only up against a higher-ranked team, but also the fans were against us. It makes our performance on the day look even better.
DFB.de: What went through your head before the penalty shootout?
Knaller: A lot of players came up to me beforehand and I just sent them all away. I needed time to myself at that point. I then prepared myself for who the potential penalty takers were going to be.
DFB.de: You did your research on the internet before the game. Did that help you?
Knaller: It’s hard to say. You will never know, if the striker decided to change which way he was shooting late on. Essentially, I went the right way for each penalty. Whether that was a coincidence or down to my research before the game, nobody will know. But either way, I don’t really care. The main thing is we are through to the next round. Everything else is now meaningless.
DFB.de: What happened after that final penalty?
Knaller: I just ran! I can’t really tell you where I ran off to. My emotions just ran wild. At some point my teammates grabbed me and I couldn’t breathe! It was just a great moment which is hard to put into words. It was a fantastic feeling. These things can only happen in the DFB Cup, which is what makes it such a great competition. We will now be doing everything to keep this fairytale going.
