After an exciting matchday 31 in the Bundesliga, we collected reactions from some of our national team’s stars. Borussia Mönchengladbach and Max Kruse can dream of direct Champions League qualification after the 2-1 win in Berlin. Mario Götze and champions Bayern München were left to rue missed chances and Schalke celebrated a last minute winner against Stuttgart. In addition, DFB.de also got quotes from Mats Hummels, Thomas Müller, Julian Draxler, Benedikt Höwedes and Ron-Robert Zieler.
Bayer Leverkusen 2-0 Bayern München
Mario Götze: "If we had taken our chances, myself included, it would have been very different."
Thomas Müller: "You’re obviously torn. On the one hand you have to treat the league with respect, but on the other, the only thing that counts for us is the Champions League semi, and I guess everyone understands that. Physically speaking, it was a very pleasant Saturday (laughs). Tiredness is relative – at 25 you can basically play every game, although obviously your mind and body are a bit drained towards the end of a season, so it was good to rest a few of the guys. And then really going for it in training, like today, is always great.”
Hertha BSC 1-2 Borussia Mönchengladbach
Max Kruse: "We played well and were dominant. We were good at the back and only gave them a few chances, one of which led to the goal. We played good football going forward and created some good scoring chances, some of which we should have done better with. But in the end we came away with a deserved win. We are now on 60 points, which is unbelievable."
1899 Hoffenheim 1-1 Borussia Dortmund
Mats Hummels: "There is a slight element of dissatisfaction there because we spurned a few very good chances in the closing stages. We had two or three wonderful opportunities. Obviously Hoffenheim had chances too, especially at the beginning of the first and second periods. All in all, I think that a draw is possibly a fair result, but if we'd scored a winner then I don't think that would've been entirely undeserved."
Schalke 04 3-2 VfB Stuttgart
Julian Draxler: "It wasn’t easy for us because Stuttgart equalised with their first chance of the match. I was hoping that we could have built on our lead. For me, it was a clear penalty in the 88th minute but the referee saw it differently. It didn’t matter in the end because we won 3-2."
Benedikt Höwedes: "We showed real spirit today, even when it looked like we wouldn’t come away with all three points. But I feel we could have stepped it up another level. It was unbelievably important to clinch all three points here. Both the players on the pitch and the supporters in the stands were relieved. You couldn‘t expect us to play football of the highest order today. We were doing well up until we conceded from their first attack. It was disappointing and obviously affected our confidence.“
VfL Wolfsburg 2-2 Hannover 96
Ron-Robert Zieler: "Even I don’t know what to think. Obviously the team showed great courage to come back from 2-0 down to draw 2-2, and we have to be satisfied with this. Nonetheless, we still had a huge chance in the end to win the game in the end. Now we need to carry on fighting. It’s important that the team showed their courage. Now we go into the short training camp and will prepare ourselves properly for the coming weeks. We have two home games left and if we can come out of these with positive results, we will stay up.”