Bastian Oczipka: I’m fit and full of energy

Bastian Oczipka on…

…why he extended his contract:
I feel really good at the moment. I know that, at 31 years old, I’m one of the older players in the Bundesliga but I’m still fit and full of energy. So I extended my contract by three more years. I’ve really enjoyed my time here at Schalke so far, even though last season didn’t go so well. The feeling around the camp is that we’re back where we want to be. We’ve got the full support of the fans behind us; the atmosphere against Mönchengladbach last week was amazing.

…the competition for places:
Competition exists at every club. That’s especially the case here at Schalke because it’s such a big club. But competition is always something you have to deal with. Football moves at such a fast pace so you can’t just rest on your laurels; you need to constantly prove yourself week in, week out. That will be my goal for the next three and half years.

…the season so far:
We want to continue what we’ve been doing. We’ve come back from the winter break strongly with a convincing performance against Mönchengladbach; not just in terms of the result, but also in the way we went about it. There’s a really positive mood around the team, and the club as a whole.

…the game against Bayern:
Playing against Bayern is the most difficult game of the season. They are the best team in Germany in terms of quality and it’s really difficult to stop them from scoring. Nevertheless, that’s exactly what we want to do on Saturday. We’re going into the game full of confidence and Bayern certainly won’t take it easy on us. We need to take every chance we get in Munich. We have to perform to the best of our abilities and hope that Bayern are both wasteful in front of goal and sloppy in defence so that we can make a positive start to the game.