FC St. Pauli

Head coach Alexander Blessin: "We're obviously delighted with the three points. We had a few problems early on, especially on the flanks. They got behind our backline very easily and were able to get some crosses in, two or three of which were really dangerous. We didn't show much tenacity out wide and in the middle our man marking wasn’t good. We improved then and were more solid as a defensive unit. We won some good possession. It was nice for the lads to take the lead. Hoffenheim threw everything at it and with it being our third game in a week that took it out of us. In the second half I felt it could have gone either way. Hoffenheim had a couple of good chances, but Niko did really well and secured us all three points. We had two or three good chances to make it 2-0 and we eventually did that just before the end. I'm incredibly proud of the team for the effort they put in today. We'll enjoy it today before the focus turns to Bayern Munich."

Jackson Irvine: "You don't get anything for nothing in this league, it was a hard-earned victory. We worked very hard today and did a really good job. We defended our goal with passion, and we had to as well. We also had some good opportunities of our own. I'm proud of everyone, especially after the week we've had. We kept our belief. It was only a matter of time before we got our reward in the shape of another three points. It all comes down to your form on the day, the game itself and the opposition. You have to take each game as it comes, and we did that. After the break we defended our box and managed to keep a clean sheet."

Oladapo Afolayan: "We wanted to go out and put in a good performance today – and it was a good team performance. We knew how important the game was. I hope I can keep scoring and we can keep winning."

Hauke Wahl: "We didn't start all that well, but we kept going and gave it all we had. We had a few scares, but we deserved to win and we're happy. Defending is not only the job of the defenders, it's down to all ten outfield players. In Niko we also had a keeper who made some good saves. If you compare the individual quality Hoffenheim have compared with us, it's very high. We have to function as a team and today we did that. It won't be easy against Bayern, but we've shown we can hold our own against good teams."

Andreas Albers: "As a striker you want to play as much as possible and score as many goals as possible. I didn't get many minutes today and I scored. You always have to be ready to come on from the bench because you can always make a difference even if you only play one minute. They're three very important points. It wasn't easy today, but we put in a very good performance. I'm not the youngest anymore and today I got my first Bundesliga goal."

Pellegrino Matarazzo (Hoffenheim coach): "Congratulations to Alex and St. Pauli on the win. We're devasted to have missed a huge opportunity to move away from the bottom and continue our trend by putting in a better performance and getting a better result. I do think we started well and in my view their goal came something out of the blue from a throw-in. We lost our way a bit after that. Our build-up play wasn't sharp enough or quick enough. We didn't get into the right positions to make better use of a three-man attack. It was better in the second half, but we couldn't mount the constant pressure you need to weaken the opposition, tire them out and get the equaliser. We lacked the precision and the attacking drive to get more from the game."

Photos: Witters