Miron Muslic: We chose to make it tough for ourselves but deservedly won in the end

Miron Muslic:

It was the sort of cup night that many fans back home would have hoped for. Halle put up a great fight for 120 minutes, which I have to congratulate both them and Robert Schröder, my counterpart in the dugout, for. At the end of a long night we have deservedly progressed to the second round, however. The important thing was to remain calm even after going behind. We allowed them barely any chances from open play before half-time, and then conceded right after the break from what was Halle’s first corner of the night.

We did a fantastic job in the second half and were able to turn the game around, before conceding again late on. We chose to make it tough for ourselves, but were able to remain calm and add more goals to our tally. This ability to withstand setbacks, our resilience, is exactly what defined us last season already. We will certainly need this quality over the course of the next ten months.

Robert Schröder:

Congratulations to FC Schalke 04 on reaching the second round. From the start, our aim was to make sure that our fans could go home feeling proud. We put in a strong fight against a team that press their opponents hard. The longer the game went on for, the more tired our legs became. Nevertheless, we still managed to find an equaliser with our very last chance in normal time. Schalke’s quality then made the difference in extra-time. Overall, though, I think the nature of the final score doesn’t truly reflect the match.

Timo Becker:

From the start, we knew what to expect in Halle. It wasn’t easy, as we saw tonight. Both goals we conceded were setbacks for us, but we never give up in such moments. Instead, we once again showed just how strong our mentality is. In the end, our quality told and we were able to deservedly win the game. In the DFB-Pokal, it doesn’t matter whether you progress after playing beautiful football – all that matters is that you reach the next round, which we’ve done.

Robin Gosens:

It was our first competitive game after seven weeks of pre-season. It’s always tricky to know just how you measure up. In contrast, Halle had already played several games in the Regionalliga Nordost. That’s why it was such a challenge tonight. In the end, I’m happy that we’ve reached the second round. If you consider the first 90 minutes, we were the more dominant side, but we lacked the ability to finish our chances in the final third and didn’t defend well enough on set pieces. Both goals we conceded came at bad times in the game. During extra-time we were able to show the fighting spirit that we have.