"It was the tough game we expected"
Kevin Vogt: "We didn't do everything right. We could've put it to bed a little earlier. It was the tough game we expected. Hannover performed well. There were a lot of counter-attacking situations that we didn't see through properly. The lads that played today were good. I'm particularly delighted that Ishak Belfodil got on the scoresheet, after he didn't quite manage it at the weekend."
Pavel Kaderabek: "I don't know myself what happened for the goal. I was surprised and just took a shot. It was the best goal of my career. We worked well today and played like a team."
Gregor Kobel: "It was a very emotional match with a real lot of fighting. It was a hard-fought win. I'm really proud that I was able to make my debut. You work towards it your whole life. We had tired legs and yet we still saw it through until the end. That was the key to the victory."
Ermin Bicakcic: "There is a huge relief. We accepted the fight today. After they pulled it back to 2-1, we no longer controlled the match. But at the end of the day we fought to get the three points. I celebrated my block. You almost no longer expect the ball to get through. I simply threw myself at it and got lucky that I made contact. That's what I'm there for: to stop goals. Our aim is to improve. Both offensively and defensively. In the end the team made the difference. We acted as a team today."
Julian Nagelsmann: "We didn't do everything right, but we played a good game in the first half. But in the second half it wasn't really a good performance from us. Hannover put us under pressure. I'm happy for Ishak that he scored. We didn't play as well today as in recent weeks, but we did get the three points. Despite having space, we didn't get away a lot of good shots and couldn't get the second goal for a long time. All in all, I'm satisfied because we worked until the last minute. It wasn't an undeserved result, even if we did get slightly fortunate with the Füllkrug chance. The players that came in did a good job."
Andre Breitenreiter (Hannover 96 coach): "Unfortunately, we didn't manage to get the win. If the ball had gone in in the 17th minute, the game might've taken a different direction. After going 1-0 up, Hoffenheim were clearly the better team. They played with incredibly variety in the first period. As a result, we did well to get in at half-time with that result and then switched it up. After going 2-0 down, my team showed a lot of courage. We were on the verge of an equaliser."