Schalke 04 match reaction

Julian Nagelsmann: Congratulations to Schalke 04, both on their victory and on qualifying for the Europa League group stage. We had good phases of pressure at the start of each half today and we should have taken a lead or bagged the equaliser in those spells, but Schalke scored with their first attacks in each half. We had extremely good goalscoring opportunities but weren't able to put them away. We weren't aggressive enough in defence, although we weren't as poor all-round as the scoreline suggests. The atmosphere has been dampened somewhat by the last two games, but we have to stay realistic - we were constantly in danger of relegation this season. Once you prevent relegation, all the pressure subsides. We played well in possession today, but didn’t manage to defend with the right amount of determination and I will let the players aware of that. Overall it was a rather mediocre season, one we will have to analyse carefully as everyone at the club has higher expectations. We are happy to have avoided relegation.

Andre Breitenreiter: I think we deserved to win today. The team played according to our plan and showed great skill when in possession. We lacked aggression without the ball in some phases of the match, but otherwise we played well. We always managed to track back and organise our defence and I'm proud of the team for that, particularly when you consider that it was a very emotional day. I told the team prior to the game that it would be my last one in charge. I wasn't able to hold back one or two tears. I think the team also played for me personally and for the coaching staff today. We have finished the season in fifth place and have directly qualified for the Europa League.

Kevin Kuranyi: It was good for me personally to be involved again towards the end of the season. I had a difficult year and TSG also had a difficult year but we both prevailed and managed to avoid relegation. I've made many new friends here and I'm happy to have played for TSG.

Ermin Bicakcic: We wanted to give our fans a show and finish off on a good note. Unfortunately we weren’t able to do that against a good opponent. At the end of the day, we’ve managed to reach our goal in a very turbulent season, which is all that matters. Julian Nagelsmann always placed his trust in us, which was the key. I once said that we will fight as long as we can breathe and that the season only concludes after matchday 34 and not before. It's the reason we will get to play another season of Bundesliga football.

Andrej Kramaric: We were in a very poor position during the winter break, especially from a psychological point of view. But we pulled through and now have to enjoy what we've achieved, even if today wasn't our day. We will have to use the break well in order to prevent another season like this.

 

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