David Wagner: We were lucky to win
David Wagner acknowledged Schalke were fortunate to take a 2-1 win over Mainz on Friday.
Schalke 04 coach David Wagner admitted his side were lucky to beat Mainz 2-1 at Veltins-Arena on Friday.
Suat Serdar's first-half opener was cancelled out by Karim Onisiwo after 75 minutes before Amine Harit secured Schalke the three points with an excellent solo goal towards the end of the match.
"I think we started the game well. We played okay in the first half and we were good value for our lead. We set up with a 4-3-3 and looked to keep the ball against their diamond. It worked well and we won a lot of second balls. The second half wasn’t good enough for 40 minutes. We lost possession too much and were nervous," David Wagner said after the game, as quoted by Schalke 04.
"Mainz played well and deservedly got their equaliser. There was a lot of energy in the stadium in the last five minutes and the Nordkurve really played its part. I could really sense the belief that we could win the game – and we managed to do so thanks to Amine. We were lucky to win the game, as it wasn't a particularly great performance," the Schalke 04 coach stated.
Schalke sit second in the table ahead of this weekend's remaining Bundesliga fixtures.