FC St. Pauli

Head coach Fabian Hürzeler: "We played really well in the first half. We were very dominant and deserved to be in front. I was pleased with our work off the ball. We gave nothing away apart from the long-range effort from Marlon Ritter and a free-kick that Niko kept out. Kaiserslautern had a spell of pressure after the break. We were expecting it, but they came at us very forcefully. We were lucky when they had several chances following a set piece. We threw everything at it in a bid to defend our goal, something we lacked a bit towards the end of the first half of the season, so I have to praise the players. The lads defended as a collective and got their reward with the clean sheet. On the ball we did well all in all. We created lots of chances. We've come on in terms of our attacking play, all we have to do now is become more efficient in front of goal. We're difficult to beat when we keep a clean sheet, and we're always capable of scoring, as we demonstrated today."

Marcel Hartel: "Everyone knows the first game is always important. It does you good to go out feeling positive. We can be pleased with today and are glad to back on top. We played very well today, apart from a short spell in the second half, and deserved to win. We were lucky when Kaiserslautern had that slew of chances. We could have already been further ahead by that point and had some good opportunities after that. We threw ourselves into every challenge and defended very well as a team. We were determined to keep a clean sheet and it feels good to have done so. Josch played very well. He got into the game straightaway with some decent moments early on and it was a good debut for him. I don't have a problem with the fact that he ran further than me today (he laughs)."

Hauke Wahl: "Today you could see from start to finish that we were determined to defend our goal and keep a clean sheet. It was a very mature performance over 90 minutes, we gave little away and deserved to win in my view. We were lucky on two occasions, but we've earned that. We could have won by more today but we're still very happy with the 2-0 win. Everyone on the pitch was determined to defend our goal. That was a focus of our winter preparations and we've made significant progress in that respect."

Johannes Eggestein: "We've started with a win and so it's a good start. That's more important than being top of the table. We could have won by more, but having said that Kaiserslautern had several chances to equalise when it was still 1-0. We can live with the 2-0 scoreline."

Dimitrios Grammozis (Kaiserslautern coach): "Congratulations to St. Pauli on the win. It was a high-intensity game today. After the winter break it was about getting back into it again for both teams. St. Pauli made the better start and were more direct than we were. I felt we lacked a bit of courage. As the game wore on, we came more into it, but we didn't have the momentum on our side today. St. Pauli had a lot of chances, but we should have equalised when it was still 1-0. In a phase when we had a better grip on things the game could have turned in our favour after that. It was difficult to come back again after we went two down. It's a fair result. We had our chances against a very good team and have taken a step forward."

Photos: Witters