Schmidt applauds Leverkusen on job well done
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Article summary
Bayer 04 Leverkusen coach Roger Schmidt admitted to his relief at avoiding the "dark shadow" of elimination after a 4-0 defeat of FC København in their play-off second leg.
Article top media content
Article body
• Bayer 04 Leverkusen coach Roger Schmidt relieved to avoid "dark shadow" of elimination
• Forward Stefan Kiessling feels early goals proved decisive and "wonders" for confidence
• Double scorer Kiessling lauds Leverkusen's high-pressing style
• FC København coach Stale Solbakken blames defeat on "individual mistakes"
Roger Schmidt, Leverkusen coach
We're happy that we made it. Play-off matches are always difficult. If you don't qualify, a dark shadow looms over the whole season. When you do, with a focused team who dominate both matches, you feel good. This game was characterised by our determination to decide the tie as fast as possible. We did that in the first half; I compliment my team.
I'm really looking forward to the draw tomorrow and we're excited which teams are waiting now. Not only do we want to play against the best teams, we want to be successful and we want to go beyond the group stage.
Stale Solbakken, København coach
Individual mistakes for the first two goals decided the match. You're mentally down when it happens like that. During the second half we tried to avoid conceding and had some good counterattacks but created only one good chance. That is not enough.
We have five or six players who haven't taken part in European matches before, so this score is realistic. Our team are very inexperienced. I hope that we'll improve with experiences like this.
Stefan Kiessling, Leverkusen forward
I think we can be very satisfied, all in all. We got another early goal and implemented our pressing strategy again and took a deserved 3-0 lead at half-time. We couldn't quite keep up that pace, we calmed it down a bit, but all in all we can be very happy.
We're not going to score early goals all the time but tonight it was important to lay down a marker early on. The quick goals did wonders for our confidence and we had a spring in our step from there on in.
Of course we're delighted to be involved in the group stage and we're all looking forward to the draw. We're sure to have some setbacks along the way but we're learning all the time and the wins and points we've earned over the past few games are something we can take forward.
