Sebastian Hoeneß: “We want to draw strength from the win”

Leverkusen had only lost once to Stuttgart since 2010 before tonight, but the Swabians crushed all that history with a perfect first-half performance at the BayArena. The 4-1 win ended a 15-game winless run against Leverkusen for Stuttgart.

“A lot of the things we set out to do worked in the first half,” said Sebastian Hoeneß after the game. “The performance in the first 30 minutes was really good, and it’s a deserved win. You can single out Atakan Karazor and Jeff Chabot. They may not have been directly involved in any goals, but initiated some of them well.

“The belief in the team is now back. We want to draw strength from that for the coming weeks.” concluded Stuttgart’s coach about the win that put them level on points with their hosts.

Jamie Leweling scored a brace after only finding the net once in the Hinrunde. The sought-after winger emphasised the fact that they ended the barren run against tonight’s opponents.

“We’ve often produced good performances here recently, but we never won. So the big win today feels very good. We took our chances going forward, and Alex (Nübel) protected the lead with his saves at the back. Now we want to build on this against Frankfurt on Tuesday.”