Mainz euphoric after dominating BVB: "Köln gave us a boost."
FSV sporting director Martin Schmidt credited Köln with helping give the team a "boost" ahead of kickoff. Captain Silvan Widmer praised the crowd. Schmidt and trainer Bo Henriksen were particularly appreciative of the early work of teenage German phenom Brajan Gruda.
FSV Mainz 05 sporting director Martin Schmidt was understandably in a gleeful mood after his team pulled themselves out of the relegation zone for the first time in the current Bundesliga campaign last night. Speaking to the Sky broadcast team after the 3-0 victory over Dortmund Saturday evening, Schmidt credited fellow relegation candidates Köln for getting the Rheinhessen fired up with their own energizing win over Union Berlin earlier in the day. Mainz were able to overtake Union thanks to Köln's comeback victory.
"The Köln result gave us a big boost," Schmidt said in his interview, "Now everything is possible in the final fixture of the season. We have to use this match as a template and play to win win Wolfsburg. We took advantage of the fact that our opponents had a newly configured team on the pitch, but we still hit them where it hurts before they were able to settle in automatisms and get into the flow of their game. We won a lot of balls far up the pitch and were more aggressive. That was the key."
There was plenty of joy to spread around after the dominant performance. Mainz immediately set the tone from the start with two strikes off the goal frame. A wonderful goal from Leandro Barreriro and a blitz brace for Jae-Sung Lee sealed the deal relatively quickly. Captain Silvan Widmer - left in the starting XI whilst Philipp Mwene remained unavailable due to suspension - praised the entire team.
"We can simply be proud of our performance," Widmer said in his own post-match interview, "We were on fire from the very first second. Big compliments It doesn't get much better than the first half. That was outstanding, as was the atmosphere in the stadium. That pushed us forward."
Both Schmidt and head-coach Bo Henriksen reserved special praise for the work of returnee Brajan Gruda. The 19-year-old - who has also made significant strides with the Germany U21s this year - continues to shine for the Nullfünfter in his breakout season.
"[Brajan] repeatedly flustered Dortmund with his dribbling," Schmidt said of the young starter, "As a result, we were able to take the lead early and hold onto our confidence. That's exactly what the coach asked for."
"He [Gruda] is an unbelievable player," Henriksen added, "He wants to play, wants the ball. It's very difficult to defend against a player with these qualities. That's nice."