Benito Raman: Winning is the most important thing

Benito, you’ve now scored in three consecutive Bundesliga matches. How happy are you with your current form?
Of course it sounds good. But I would have preferred it if I didn’t score and we’d won the match.

Why do you think you’re playing so well at the moment?
The coach has complete faith in me and plays me almost every game. I’ve had quite a few injury problems so far this season but now I feel in great condition. I’m also getting more and more confident with every good performance.

You scored to make it 2-1 in the 82nd minute, which set you up for an attacking onslaught in the final minutes. However, you also almost scored shortly after the break.
Yes that’s true. Unfortunately the goal didn’t count. I haven’t watched it back yet so I can’t say if I was offside or not. If I was then I’m sure it must’ve been close.

We’ve watched it again and it was only just a few centimetres…
Then the referee made the right decision.

The coach has complete faith in me.
Benito Raman

You had another good chance to equalise just before the break too. Can you recall that passage of play?
I was played through one on one with Lukas Hradecky after great play from Suat Serdar. I tried to round him but I couldn’t manage it. I might’ve scored if I’d have taken another option, but hindsight is a funny thing.

You weren’t great as a team in that first half, but you were better in the second. Why was that?
It’s never easy to put pressure on for the entire 90 minutes against a strong team like Leverkusen. They’re one of the best teams in the league in my opinion. After the break we showed that we can withstand pressure and dominate games ourselves. It would’ve done us good not to let the incredibly pacey Bayer attack get through so often. They don’t need a second invitation.

How annoyed are you about the result?
It was the first time in seven games for us that we’ve come away with nothing so it’s a bitter loss but we can’t let our heads drop. We’ve played so well so far this season and we want to get back to that in the next game against Frankfurt.

There are only two games left of the Hinrunde after Frankfurt. What are your aims up until Christmas?
I don’t want to lose any of these games, but that doesn’t mean I’d be satisfied with three draws either. I want to get maximum points from these games, even though I know it won’t be easy in any of these games, whether it be Frankfurt, Wolfsburg or Freiburg. All three opponents have plenty of quality about them, but so do we!