“We showed the right mentality”

You could sense the relief in the Hertha players after full time. After an intense 90 minutes in Augsburg, the final whistle blew on a deserved 1-0 win away from home, giving the Blue-Whites three crucial points. “I’m just so happy to be able to take the three points home,” said a delighted Prince Boateng, who started the game for the first time since matchday 7 in October. Another delighted Herthaner was Davie Selke, who summarised Hertha’s courageous performance well: “We had a good plan off the ball, which worked well for nearly the entire 90 minutes. We showed the right mentality to bring the game over the line,” our number 7 said. All the post-match reaction is here on herthabsc.com.

Davie Selke: It was unbelievably important to win this one! We wanted to be compact from the start and had a good plan off the ball, which worked well for nearly the entire 90 minutes. We forced them to pump the ball long so many times and got more confident from one situation to the next – the moment of brilliance from Suat was a just reward – and then we showed the right mentality to bring the game over the line. We need to keep this focus now. Yes, we can celebrate for a while, but then we need to recover and start preparing for our next game. If we go about the rest of the season like we did today, we’ll achieve the goal we want to!

Prince Boateng: I’ve trained really hard in the last few weeks and got my reward today. The coach has said he needs me, that I should do my thing on the pitch and help the team out. I think I did that well and am just so happy after the team and I have taken so much criticism. It was just brilliant and such an important win for us in a mental sense too. I’m so happy to be able to take the three points home. We won a lot in the game, fought hard and had a bit of luck on our side. Now we have a week to prepare for our next game – there are four finals for us between now and the end of the season, and I hope we finish the job as soon as possible!

Marco Richter: I had a great time here in Augsburg and grew from a youth player to a full professional. Of course, I’m very happy to have won here and to have set up the goal. Suat is an unbelievable footballer. The way he scored, nutmegging the defender and goalkeeper with his heel, is something he can just do! Prince really pushed us forward and is a really unique guy, but Dedryck is just as important a personality for the team. Even if we can’t always hear his instructions up front, Dedo always pushes his defensive unite to do better. We also have a couple of other players who like to give their encouragement to the team – it all works well!