Interviews: “Got ourselves motivated again”

Thomas Reis (head coach VfL Bochum 1848): Today I’d like to thank everyone for their congratulations. I had already said in advance that it would be a very, very close game. We knew that Mainz had a solid defence. In the first half, it was a game with very few chances. Then, almost out of nowhere, we fell behind. The transitions in play worked well in the first half. We discussed a few things during the break that we wanted to correct. That worked well. Also, the guys that came off the bench were hot. We are still positive and can be very pleased with the way we performed. On Saturday, we want to put in a similar performance.

Bo Svensson (head coach 1. FSV Mainz 05): Congratulations to Thomas Reis and VfL Bochum. The first half developed the way we wanted it to. But we had hardly any chances and we used the only one we had. Then in the second half, we were just too naive in the crucial scenes. Bochum was better and more aggressive, we didn’t do it well.

Milos Pantovic: Defensively, we were very compact. We didn’t allow any chances – except for the goal against, where we switched gears a bit too late. In the dressing room it got a bit louder. We got ourselves motivated again. It’s very nice for the club to have qualified for the quarter finals of the cup. In the end, it doesn’t matter who scores the goals. The success of the team is above everything, even though I’m happy to have scored two goals, of course.

Gerrit Holtmann: We knew that Mainz would sit deep. The plan for the second half was to shift the spaces better and make Mainz run. We succeeded in doing that. Of course, I was very keen to play against my former club. It was extremely important to win this game and move into the quarter finals.

Sebastian Polter: We are one round further. I think everyone is just happy about that. It’s nice that we could celebrate the victory together with the fans. Unfortunately, only 750 could be there, but they made for a really good atmosphere. We saw a game similar to the one in Mainz. Mainz didn’t have any real scoring chances and then scored out of nowhere. The victory is deserved, even by that amount. Milos is a very important player for us. Not only because of his goals, but also because he plays a special kind of football. His runs down the field are great.