Karel Geraerts: The atmosphere was amazing – it was like a cup final

Karel Geraerts spoke about his side’s performance and the support from the fans after Schalke’s 1-1 draw in Hannover on Sunday (7/4). Marius Müller and Simon Terodde were interviewed in the Mixed Zone, where they were also full of praise for the travelling Schalker. Hannover coach Stefan Leitl talked about the game in the post-match press conference, too.

Karel Geraerts:

The fans were amazing – from the bus arriving at the stadium up until the final whistle. You get that sort of atmosphere at a cup final in Belgium. I’m proud of how my team played. Compared to other away matches this season, they showed a different side to their game. I said that to the boys in the huddle after the final whistle. We gave it our all and put in a lot of effort for the whole 90 minutes. When you have the lead for a long time, it’s obviously disappointing to concede an equaliser late on. Simon Terodde and Yusuf Kabadayi had chances to make it 2-0. A second goal, especially towards the end of the game, probably would’ve sealed the win. Their goal was unfortunate, but we shouldn’t have conceded in that manner. All that being said, we’ll take the draw. One point is better than none. We want to take this energy from Hannover into the game against Nürnberg with the fans behind us.

Stefan Leitl:

Schalke were really good in the first half. The opposition forced us into a lot of one-on-ones and we didn’t deal with them very well. We didn’t pose much of a threat for a long time. S04 looked more likely to double their lead by half-time than we did to scoring a leveller. We turned things around in the second half and we had more of a say in the game. The equaliser was definitely fortunate at the time, but we still had chances to win the game after that.

Marius Müller:

We were amazing up until the final ten minutes or so. We finally took the lead in an away match and defended well as a team. That’s why it’s so disappointing to concede in such an unfortunate manner. I got my fingertips to the ball, but just couldn’t stop it from going in. I really wanted us to win for the fans. The supporters were fantastic again and it gave us a real boost. Just like last week, we were okay, but we didn’t reap the reward for our effort. The three points would’ve really helped us out. If we play like that in the coming weeks, I’m 100% sure that we’ll pick up some points.

Simon Terodde:

We played really well until the clock hit the 80th minute mark. We barely gave one of the most in-form side in the league a snif. That being said, anyone who is familiar with the 2. Bundesliga knows that anything can happen. We’ll take the point, even though we wanted all three. After all, we could’ve ended up going 2-1 down. I want to give the fans a lot of credit – they were sensational again today. I had goosebumps on the way to the stadium when I saw how many fans there were. It boosted our performance.