Wirtz after winner: "I was in the mood to decide the game."
Despite the fact that there was some luck involved in the victory, the 21-year-old did wish to emphasize that some of the team's spirit from last season's historic run-to-the title had carried over to this campaign.
When speaking on Bayer 04 Leverkusen's knack for scoring late goals last season, Bayer 04 Leverkusen captain Lukas Hradecky admitted that there was an even split between luck and quality. Florian Wirtz - scorer of a brace in Leverkusen's most recent win in the 2024/25 German Bundesliga opener - seemed to acknowledge that his side were indeed lucky to escape with all three points from Borussia Park on Friday evening.
“I had the feeling that we made it unnecessarily difficult for ourselves," Wirtz told German broadcaster DAZN, "We were asleep when we conceded goals. We let it out of our own hands, even though we were actually in control, even though we didn't have the ball the whole time. We still held our own and didn't let much through."
"It was okay today," Wirtz continued, "We still have many things to work on. In any event, everyone wants to be here and knows what the idea is. We all know how we want to perform. We got three points and we can build on that."
When it came to Wirtz's technical miss from the penalty spot at 90+11, the young German phenom outright admitted that he should have done better than a low-driven effort to BMG keeper Jonas Omlin's right. The 21-year-old cited the role of luck, but noted that he hesitated neither to take the penalty nor pounce on the rebound.
"I was in the mood to decide the game," Wirtz said, "I know it was a bit lucky at the end of the day, but we're all happy that we won and I was able to score on the rebound."