“One of the highlights of the season”

The Zerofivers ended their six-month wait for an away victory with a 2-1 win against Hertha BSC at the Olympiastadion in their final away fixture of the season. “It was about time we enjoyed an away win,” matchwinner Stefan Bell was a very pleased man after full-time. “Our team put in a terrific performance,” commented board member Christian Heidel following the victory in the capital, which led to rapturous celebrations between the team and the travelling support at the Olympiastadion after the final whistle blew.

Reaction to the victory in Berlin

Stefan Bell: “Today was one of the highlights of the season. I’ve played here many times and have never seen the stadium so full, loud and atmospheric – in both the away and the home end. It was certainly something special. You could see after full-time just what an important win this was for the team and the fans. It was about time we enjoyed an away win, because we’ve not always played as poorly as our results on the road would suggest. You have to honestly say that Hertha were the better side in the opening quarter of an hour and stunned us with their pressing. It was a phase of the game which we had to overcome and we managed to do that without conceding. Then we grew into the game, got up the pitch and then began to control things, taking a deserved lead. We were also the better side after the break and were linking up well in possession and in my view, we should have made it 2-1 a bit earlier. We got the winner from a set-piece, which was also nice. I’m really pleased to have scored the winner and it’s certainly a good feeling.”

Board member Christian Heidel: “Our team put in a terrific performance. Only one team deserved to win today and that was Mainz 05. We were superior to Hertha in all aspects and only came under considerable pressure in the final five minutes. I’m very proud of what the team’s done today, especially given the adversity we had to overcome in the game. How the referee’s given a penalty there, I’ve got no idea – he even went to the screen and could clearly see that Bell got an elbow to the face. Since when has that been allowed in football? Once again, another wrong decision has been made! If your ankle gets slightly touched, they give a penalty immediately, I don’t get it.”

Finn Dahmen: “I only found out shortly after lunch that I was playing, so it was a bit last-minute. Of course I was very pleased about it and the fact that we won at the end of the night made it even better. It was important for us as a team to show that we can play well on the road. We went into the game with full motivation, we didn’t want to give them anything, we put in a performance deserving of victory and then got that victory. We’ll work hard in training once again this week and are hoping for a fitting end to the season by beating Frankfurt next weekend.”

Silvan Widmer: “We were solid at the back and constantly tried to find gaps in attack, and we had a lot of possession. We knew our opponents weren’t going to allow us many chances. The fact we’ve scored twice and also had other good opportunities shows just how good our attacking play was today, exactly as we had planned to do going into the game, and we can be proud of that. I wasn’t expecting my shot to go sailing into the corner, but I’ll certainly take it. I would have also liked to have scored my header, but I can’t be too upset with myself, because it was a brilliant reflex save from the goalkeeper. I’m even happier that Bello got his goal which secured us three points to take back to Mainz. We need to be more confident when playing away in general because we’re often the better side on the day. We need to trust ourselves more, and if we start to do that, I’m sure that we’ll pick up more points on the road next season.”