Leonardo Bittencourt is back for Werder and captained the side away to FC St. Pauli on Saturday. He spoke on Sunday about the game, the run-in and why he gave the armband to Christian Groß during the match.
Leonardo Bittencourt is back for Werder and captained the side away to FC St. Pauli on Saturday. He spoke on Sunday about the game, the run-in and why he gave the armband to Christian Groß during the match.
…the away game at St. Pauli: “I believe we had a good chance of winning the game, though St. Pauli have the best home record in the second division this season. We could have taken more from this game, but a point is better for us than it is for St. Pauli. We’ve got five games left and it’s in our own hands. It’s always disappointing when you play well and have clear chances but only draw. We’ve missed a few chances in recent weeks. We need to work on that and try to go ahead again in games. Things will be a bit easier for us then. We’ve been chasing games at times recently, and, although we’ve always scored, our chance conversion hasn’t been great.”
…giving the captain’s armband to Christian Groß: “I was wearing Ömer’s captain’s armband. I’ve also got my own. Ömer does more biceps training than I do so his was slipping down a lot and annoying me, which is why I gave it to Grosso – he works a bit harder in the gym than I do! It doesn’t really matter who wears the armband because we’re such a tight-knit group.”
…the tunnel at the Millerntor: “It’s always cool to have a tunnel like that. It certainly doesn’t put me off, it actually motivates me. I just focus on myself and don’t concentrate really on what the tunnel looks like. Having fans back in loud stadiums is a really nice feeling. Football is at its best with fans there.”
…the season run-in: “I think that two or three months ago, no one would have thought that we would be here. We were 12 points behind St. Pauli back then, and now we’re one ahead of them and hold our fate in our own hands, because we’re level on points with Schalke. They have a superior goal difference, but if we manage to win our games, then anything is possible. Fortunately, we’re not in a position where we have to hope that other teams lose in order for us to be in a good position. I think that we have worked hard to put ourselves in a strong spot over the last months. Since Ole Werner took over as head coach, we have lost just once in 14 games. We can’t forget where we come from. Everyone is on board now and we are well-positioned to tackle the next five weeks.”
…testing positive for Covid-19: “I was very sick for three days and I basically did nothing for ten days because I wasn’t able to. I spoke with the coach about how to work my way back, which is why I didn’t start against Sandhausen. I trained well ahead of the Sandhausen game. The week before the game against St. Pauli was also good, and I’m fully fit again.”
...Niclas Füllkrug’s goalscoring record: “I’ve known Fülle for a long time, and when he’s fit then you can clearly see what he’s capable of. I have a lot of respect for him. Looking back at his injury history, and the way he’s always managed to fight his way back, he deserved all the success he’s enjoyed so far. If you never give up, the way he has, then you will eventually get rewarded. I hope that he’s not satisfied yet now that he’s broken his own personal scoring record against St. Pauli. We still have five games left for him to add to his tally. In Duckschi, he has a partner that he can work extremely well with and I think that he’s really enjoying himself right now.”
