FC St. Pauli

Assistant coach Loïc Favé: "We're delighted, of course. It was an incredibly high-energy performance from everyone. Fabi gave a fantastic team talk before the game, and the entire backroom staff chipped in. You saw that on the pitch as well. Overall, we defended as a unit. We knew we'd be facing a lot of pressure and momentum. We deserved to go ahead and if we'd scored the third after the break, it might not have been so close. Things always get a bit hectic when the opposition pull one back, but even then we defended well as a team."

Guido Burgstaller: "Games against your former club are always special. It's a win, but no more than that, and we know we have to keep working hard for them."

Philipp Ziereis: "The way we pressed the ball was the foundation, we gave it all we had. All in all, I think we deserved to win. It's great we saw it through to the end today."

Sven Piepenbrock (Schalke assistant coach): "I think it was a very exciting game in front of a great crowd. In the first half, we conceded too easily, especially the first one. We came out well after half-time. We were on a high when we thought we'd equalised, only to come crashing back down a few seconds later. I have to compliment the team for keeping going regardless. The young lad Keke Topp had our last chance. Football sometimes writes fairy tales, but not today unfortunately. As it is, we go home empty-handed because of our first-half showing."

Photos: Witters