Suat Serdar: We earned the victory as a team

“I’m very happy for Suat. To be able to score the winning goal on your birthday is a very special thing,” said head coach Dimitrios Grammozis, who welcomed the midfielder off the pitch with a big hug at full time. The relief at S04’s second league victory of the season was plain to see for everyone following the win. “When you haven’t won for such a long period of time, picking up three points feels even more special,” smiled Serdar. The birthday boy had another good opportunity to double the advantage in the 36th minute but was unable to direct his right-footed effort on target after good build-up play from Amine Harit.

Just like Grammozis, Serdar named the team’s united performance as the main factor in the victory against the side from Bavaria. “We earned the victory as a team. Every single one of us fought right from the first minute and showed full commitment in all of our duels,” praised the midfielder. “That’s the only way you can win games of football,” he continued, paying tribute to the efforts of his teammates that earned the win for Schalke. “We were fully focused from the ref’s whistle, looked to push forward from the start, and created a lot of good chances,” explained the four-time international. Serdar did single out one area for improvement, however: “The only thing we didn’t do so well at was dealing with their counterattacks.”

Serdar is not interested in the maths behind Bundesliga survival at this time; the only thing that matters for the midfielder is taking each game as it comes. “If we continue to play like we did today, then we will pick up a few more wins. Then we’ll just have to see what happens.”