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Danny Latza: There’s still more to come!
The fact that Saturday’s clash against 1. FC Nürnberg didn’t end in a draw was mainly down to Danny Latza. Thanks to the midfielder’s late goal the Royal Blues achieved an important 2-1 victory at the Max-Morlock-Stadion and took all three points back to Gelsenkirchen. “It’s a really good feeling,” said the match-winning goalscorer, who celebrated with his teammates and the travelling Schalke fans after full-time.
Latza was brought on in the 64th minute for Dominick Drexler, who scored the other goal for Schalke in the game, and came up with the goods in the 89th minute, when Thomas Ouwejan whipped a free-lick from out on the left into the box. The 33-year-old met Ouwejan’s cross with a header which nestled in the back of the net. The Gelsenkirchen-born midfielder said that he felt pure relief when he saw the ball go over the line.
We’ve been rewarded for our hard work
“We wanted to build on the game against Hannover and pick up three points to end the double gameweek after the Pokal exit at FC St. Pauli,” explained Latza, who suggested that three points was definitely the aim before the game against Nuremberg and that no one would’ve been satisfied picking up just a point. “We’ve been rewarded for our hard work.”
Stop sleepy periods after the break
Despite being dominant in the first half, in which Dominick Drexler scored and the Royal Blues hit the post twice and barely gave away any chances, Latza admitted that it was by no means a perfect game over 90 minutes. “We didn’t get going after the break,” said the midfielder, who added that this is nothing new for Schalke. “It’s happened to us a lot in the past that we need quite a lot of time to get back into the game after half-time. That’s not good and we have to get out of that habit in the upcoming weeks. We have to control the game and keep a clean sheet for a longer period of time when we go into the lead.”
That fact that this period didn’t matter too much at the end of the day is thanks to Latza’s late winning goal. “We have to keep going now against Elversberg and then also in the week after,” emphasised the former captain, who now recognises a clear pattern in the team away from home after a poor start. “The organisation is good, we have a good mentality, overall we set up well defensively – even if the goals we’ve conceded obviously bother us. We want to keep a clean sheet again,” said Latza. “It is also clear that we have to improve further going forward. We managed to score two goals in Nuremberg, but I think that there’s still more to come!”
