The race for Europe is set to go right down to the wire in the Bundesliga after VfL cruised to an impressive 4-1 victory at Hoffenheim to boost their hopes of a place in the UEFA Europa League next season. Here’s what the coaches had to say following Sunday’s Matchday 31 encounter:
Bruno Labbadia: “It was an awesome win against a top side who have been in impressive form of late. We went 1-0 down even though we’d started the game reasonably well. After that the players showed a good reaction and fought their way into the game - although we risked being hit on the counterattack by Hoffenheim. We were close to being in complete control of proceedings before half-time. They defended deeper in the second half, which was a compliment to us. We knew that they wanted to catch us out on the counter, but we didn’t give them many opportunities to do so and got a bit lucky at set-pieces. We deserved to win today - we wanted it a little bit more than them.”
Julian Nagelsmann: “We had a very good first 20 minutes where we dominated our opponents and should have led 2-0 - not just because of the penalty but also because of other opportunities. The game turned on its head after that. Psychologically, Wolfsburg started to believe in themselves again and we lost our confidence a little bit - even though we were still in front at that stage. Defensively, we often lacked the hunger and effort we’ve shown in recent weeks. I wasn’t at all pleased with the last 70 minutes of the game - that’s not where we want to be. We had a chance to pull clear of them in the table. Next week we need to do a lot better than we did today.”
