Kees van Wonderen: The belief in our own ability keeps on growing

Just like last week at league leaders Paderborn, the Royal Blues put in an impressive performance on Saturday afternoon (14/12) against Fortuna Düsseldorf. Kees van Wonderen and his opposite number Daniel Thioune reflected on an entertaining game at the post-match press conference, with both coaches agreeing that Fortuna goalkeeper Florian Kastenmeier was the reason that Schalke only got a point. Captain Kenan Karaman and Paul Seguin also talked about the 90 minutes.

Kees van Wonderen:

I’ve got mixed feelings. On the one hand, we obviously would have loved to have won the game given the chances that we created. It will take a little bit longer for this feeling to go away. Their goalkeeper made an incredible save to deny Ron Schallenberg late on. On the other hand, I once again saw my team work hard and realise that they were getting better and better throughout the game. The belief in our own ability keeps on growing. It’s fun to watch our team play and see them create opportunities. We’re on the right track.

Daniel Thioune:

It was a really intense game. Schalke played as we had expected them to after last week. They played with lots of energy and we tried to control that. Schalke definitely created more chances – Florian Kastenmeier made a sensational save in the first half. We were lucky to take the lead in the second half. Their equaliser after that was definitely deserved. We’d normally have lost a game like that, but we had an outstanding goalkeeper in our side.

Kenan Karaman:

We deserved to win today’s game. We put in a great performance, played with real hunger and got stuck in. We created lots of chances and should have scored more than once. Florian Kastenmeier made several great saves and we were a bit unlucky too at times. Moussa Sylla’s shot in the 80th minute first hit the bar and then the post. We’re definitely on the right track. After the performance in Paderborn last week, it was another good display by us as a team. Our aim now is to end the year with another good game and a positive result in Elversberg.

Paul Seguin:

We put in another good performance, but, unlike in Paderborn last week, we didn’t get the goals. I still think that today was another important step in the right direction despite the result. We’re doing really well as a team at the minute and aren’t becoming unsettled once we concede a goal. We carried on playing after going 1-0 down and quickly found an equaliser. We want to play well again in the final game before the winter break at Elversberg and take something from that one as well.

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