Huub Stevens full of praise for his team
29.01.2012
Royal Blues fans were celebrating at the final whistle in the RheinEnergieStadion. There was even a smile on Huub Stevens's face after the 4-1 win. Stevens and Cologne coach Stale Solbakken reflected on the game at the post-match press conference. schalke04.com was there to hear their views.
Huub Stevens: Compliments to my team. They compensated magnificently for all the key players that were missing. They deserve great respect for being able to turn a game around against Cologne and then going on to win so convincingly. We didn’t start the game well, mind you. I got the feeling that one or two of the players weren't fully switched on in the opening minutes. Our performance in the first half was poor. We changed things around at the break and the introduction of Jurado brought more urgency to our game which paid off. I took the decision to play Ciprian Marica in the starting eleven on Saturday morning. I'm glad I did! I've always said that all of the players in our squad have an important part to play.
Stale Solbakken: We were marginally the better team for the first hour. We should have capitalised on that by adding to Lukas Podolski's opener. Schalke's two goals took the wind out of our sails and after Miso Brecko was sent off we faced an uphill struggle. In the end we were unable to take anything from the game against a very effective Schalke team. We need to take a good look at the league table and keep working hard. The next few games are very important for us.
