Thioune and Füllkrug savour "incredibly hard-fought" win in Mainz

Thioune and Füllkrug shared a moment after the game to soak up that winning feeling on Matchday 7 of the Bundesliga.

Photo: Stuart Franklin/Getty Images.

After a thrilling 3-2 victory over Mainz earlier this afternoon, Daniel Thioune took time to special praise for their efforts over 90 minutes.

“I wanted us to take the lead today and make the most of our chances," the Bremen head coach said in his post-match interview.

"Our positioning was excellent today and we managed to get on the ball in exactly the areas we wanted to.

"We found plenty of space in the first 20 minutes, which led to the two penalties. We also had to withstand a lot of pressure, though. 

“What helped us was that we just kept going. We had a lot of defending to do towards the end, but overall, I thought we were the better team,” he added.

Scoring a brace from the penalty spot at the Mewa Arena, Niklas Füllkrug underlined just how difficult it was to keep Mainz at bay.

“It was an incredibly hard-fought game and we scored in the right moments. Unfortunately, we also conceded pretty quickly afterwards.

"I was particularly annoyed about their second goal because we wouldn't have had such a nervy finish if we'd managed to hold on to our two-goal lead for a few more minutes.

"Mainz are an incredibly difficult team to play against. Urs Fischer always sets his teams up with a clear plan, and they've got some really good individual players too.

They put crosses in whenever they had half a chance. I was absolutely exhausted because defending so deep really takes it out of you," the striker said.