“We kept at it and we were rewarded”

Bo Svensson lauded the “special performance” of his players after Mainz’s 3-2 win over Leverkusen on Sunday night. Here is all the reaction after FSV’s memorable evening at the BayArena.

Reaction from Leverkusen:

Finn Dahmen: “My compliments go to the team. It isn’t a given that you can go on and play like that in Leverkusen after conceding a goal to make it 2-2. You’d be forgiven for expecting Leverkusen to turn up the heat and pushing to get the winner. We responded really well and we forged two great chances after their equaliser, but Hradecky made two great saves. We kept at it and we were rewarded.”

Martin Schmidt: “We got there today by determination, not really by how we played. The set-pieces also played a big part. We used them to unsettle our opponents and we beat them in the end. The most important thing is that we didn’t give up after they made it 2-2. The fans were superb today, they brought that Carnival spirit. The party can continue this evening and tomorrow’s bank holiday is off to a great start.”

Anton Stach: “I think we won it because we wanted it that little bit more and we dealt with the adversity really well. We didn’t sit back, we kept pressing, we worked really hard for that third goal and we defended with passion. That’s how you pick up three points here. I’ll definitely be at the Carnival parade but I’ll have to recover well until then.”

Bo Svensson: “That was a special performance in my opinion. We have spoken about the fact that we need to develop our game so that we can swing matches in our favour. We managed to do that impressively today and it felt great. I felt the whole way through that the team wanted it. We want to be more stable and I saw that today.”