Sami Khedira is replaced by Dedryck Boyata.
First team | May 3, 2021, 08:49 PM

“We fought as a team!”

There were a lot of question marks ahead of our return to action, given the quarantine and the lack of preparation time. Those questions were answered over the 90 minutes against Mainz. Sami Khedira summed things up perfectly in his post-match interview: “Our performance showed that not everything is going to go perfectly smoothly, but we fought hard as a team. That’s what it’s always about – being a family on the pitch, having that team spirit and fighting for one another. Our young team has been learning that more and more.” Lucas Tousart and Alexander Schwolow also gave their thoughts after the game. herthabsc.com sums up the match reaction. 

Lucas Tousart: Getting that first point is a good result for us after the two weeks in quarantine. We stood together on the pitch. We worked together and that is so important for us. It’s not easy to start again after two weeks without team training, with no training with a ball. But we took it in our stride and will happily take the point. I’m obviously very happy with my first goal but I wasn’t able to celebrate properly because I hurt my back scoring (grins). I’m just happy to have helped the team. All together for the club and for this city – that’s the way forward!

Sami Khedira: I hadn’t quite drained the tank when I was taken off, but we have to look at the bigger picture and Pál has a really good feel for that kind of thing. We have lots of important games still to come – it’s to our advantage that we have a really good, deep squad. We can change things up at any time. We approached the quarantine professionally and we were all eager to get back playing. Our performance showed that not everything is going to go perfectly smoothly, but we fought hard as a team. That’s what it’s always about – being a family on the pitch, having that team spirit and fighting for one another. Our young team has been learning that more and more. Overall, it was a good reaction from us and even though we would have liked three points in this one, it’s a small step in the right direction.

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Our performance showed that not everything is going to go perfectly smoothly, but we fought hard as a team. That’s what it’s all about.
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-Sami Khedira

Alexander Schwolow: Our fitness coach Henrik Kuchno pushed us through the quarantine. I think you could see that there were no problems with our conditioning. Overrall it was a good performance. For Ádám Szalai’s chance I tried to stay tall for as long as possible and not let him nutmeg me. He recognised that and went for the chip but I saw it coming (grins). I am really happy that I was able to help out in that situation. That’s why I am here, so that I can support the team and help us stay in the fight.

by Hertha BSC