Interviews: “Picked up a bonus point”

Thomas Reis (Head Coach VfL Bochum 1848): “We’re very happy. We talked about a bonus game beforehand. Now, we’ve taken home a bonus point. Dortmund brought huge quality to the pitch and tried to put us under pressure from the start. In the first half, we had problems and made life difficult for ourselves with our own mistakes. We wanted to get deep and the first situation resulted directly in the penalty. At the moment, we just have the necessary luck. The guys showed great mentality. We’re happy to take the point. In terms of play, Dortmund were clearly superior and they were also better in all the stats, but that’s not decisive. My team tried to take on the derby and play football. I’m proud of that.

Alexander Zickler (co-coach Borussia Dortmund): “We would have liked a different result. We would have liked to take three points today, that would have been very important. Basically, my team played a good game. But Bochum defended passionately and made it really difficult for us. We had many, many chances and could have equalised earlier. But, I can’t blame my team. They tried everything and unfortunately weren’t rewarded in the end.

Anthony Losilla: That was a bonus game for us. I said before the game, that games like against Bayern and Dortmund are bonus games. We just wanted to have fun today. Dortmund is a team that plays at the top and is simply brutally strong. The fact that we took home a point today is just really good. BVB still had a lot of chances at the end. Nevertheless, we believed that we could take three points with us. But we can also be happy with the point.

Sebastian Polter: Emotions burst out of me after my goal. That was just awesome, a derby in front of the fans. For the fans, it was also a very significant game. The opening goal came at a very good time for us. We could have been behind before, but Manu made an excellent save. You need a bit of luck to beat Dortmund and keep the game open for so long. We are very, very happy about the point today.

Erhan Mašović: We are very, very happy about the point. We put in a great game. It was one of the greatest games of my career so far. I hope I can experience many more games like this. We have great fans. I’m incredibly happy that I’m getting so much playing time this season and that I can experience it all.

Maxim Leitsch: When you’re leading for so long, you’d naturally like to take three points. Nevertheless, we’re very happy with the point. Over the 90 minutes, the result was okay. It wasn’t easy. You can’t keep Dortmund in check for 90 minutes. But we held up well against them.