"The way in which we won was important"
Captain Péter Gulácsi, Willi Orban and head coach Domenico Tedesco react to RB Leipzig's 2-0 away win over VfB Stuttgart
Péter Gulácsi:
- "I’m very happy that we managed to keep a clean sheet. Obviously, I try to save everything but it doesn’t always work out that way. Today it was a good performance, both from me and the team. I’m really pleased that I was able to help the team; it was very important that we picked up our first away win today. There were a few moments where it was important to keep them scoreless, and then we managed to get the second goal which decided the game. We were up against a good team today, even if the table doesn’t recognise that. Stuttgart have a lot of quality and caused us some problems. We knew that we could decide the game through counter attacks and our transitions, and that’s how our second goal came about. Our plan worked well.
We said that we’ll hit the ‘rest button’ from the 1st January, and not reflect too much on the past. Thanks to the important away win today, we don’t have those thoughts any more. We’ve started the year with two wins; that was very important. Our ambitions are high.
Kalajdzic’s header wasn’t very easy to hold; it was just a reflex save. We train a lot to develop these instinctive actions and luckily I managed to keep the ball out of the back of the net."
Relive #VfBRBL
Domenico Tedesco:
- "Our plan was to win and that’s what we did. Our first half wasn’t good; we started well and took and early lead, but then we didn’t carry on applying any pressure. Despite that, we had some good moments where we won the ball, but then didn’t use the opportunity well. If we could have taken those chances, we’d have been 2-0 or 3-0 ahead and the game is more or less decided. That’s why we needed to put on a good showing of ourselves in the second half. The way in which we won was important.
VfB were very brave in their play. Their back three was wide and it was hard for our two forwards to press. André and Christo were forced to run a lot and often arrived too late. They also played a lot of long balls into Kalajdzic, who was able to make good use of them. We did things a little differently in the second half and played with two attacking midfielders and that worked better.
Pete’s performance was really good. He kept us in the game and allowed us to get our second goal and decide the game.
André feels comfortable playing in our system. His teammates do a lot for him and create a lot of chances. André is a very hard-working player and he does that really well.
We’ve been doing well since December. We have to continue building our self confidence – that’s important. Today was a bad game from us in terms of our football; we were more dominant against Augsburg but ended up drawing 1-1. We want to do both: play well and win, but that comes with time. What’s important now is the upcoming cup game against Rostock – that will be a real fight."
Willi Orban:
- "Our last away win was a long time ago. It feels really good. It wasn’t an easy game for us and we had some problems, especially in the first half. We were made to suffer a bit and in terms of our performance, there’s room for improvement, but at the end of the day it was a deserved win. We’re pleased that we’ve got the away win and kept a clean sheet, but we gave to carry on working.
We knew that quick transitions are a strength of ours and a weakness of Stuttgart’s. We actually wanted them to control the play like that. We were forced to work hard, but that’s how it goes. We could have got the second goal earlier on.
We’re staying humble. It’s been a good start to the year but we have to keep working and take each game as it comes. We have a lot to put right but we want to keep progressing.
Pete was incredible between the sticks. He had a fantastic game. I think it will do him a lot of good that we’ve kept a clean sheet again. We want to build on that."