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Kees van Wonderen: We should have killed the game off
FC Schalke 04 recorded a narrow victory at home to Karlsruher SC on Sunday afternoon (16/2). Kees van Wonderen and KSC coach Christian Eichner analysed the game at the post-match press conference, while Ron Schallenberg and Tobias Mohr also gave their thoughts on the 2-1 win.
Kees van Wonderen:
That was an important win, one that has seen us climb three places in the table. However, we have to be honest with ourselves and admit it wasn’t a good performance, but we’re still happy to have beaten a strong side like Karlsruhe. KSC were in second place at the winter break and possess real quality.
We started well but struggled throughout the rest of the game. We should have made more of our opportunities in the second half to close the game out earlier on. That’s something we must improve on. We could have played at a higher intensity too. You have to sprint a lot, get stuck in and possess pace in this league. These are all things that we will continue to work on.
Christian Eichner:
Schalke deserved to win today. We started really badly and went 1-0 down pretty early on. My team recovered after that and our opponents allowed us more of the ball. After a couple of decent attacks, we got back in the game with our equaliser. Schalke then took control of the game again and went 2-1 up, which I think was a fair reflection of the run of play.
We had hoped to improve in the second half, but we were poor in possession. Schalke were pretty comfortable at the break and we gave them seven or eight chances to hit us on the break. They possibly should have killed the game off earlier on.
Ron Schallenberg:
It definitely wasn’t the greatest game of football, but we won the key moments and deserved all three points in the end. The fact that we responded well to their equaliser was important. We gave KSC too much space during parts of the game. We were more compact after their goal and then kept things pretty tight after that. I’m pleased we got back to winning ways after two defeats, and I’m particularly happy for our fans. Their support was fantastic once again. We will now prepare properly for our next game in Darmstadt – we’ve got to put things right after what happened in the reverse fixture earlier this season.
Tobias Mohr:
It was a deserved win, even if it was slightly nervy at the end. We could have made our own lives easier if our counter-attacks had been better. We will continue to work on that. Ultimately though, we’d be top of the table if we did everything perfectly. We’re playing against a number of teams near us in the table over the coming weeks. We want to win these matches and ensure safety as soon as we can.
