"You could see that in some situations we did not give it everything we had defensively to avoid risking injuries," said Thomas Tuchel in the wake of the 3-1 win over Sparta Prague.

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Mr Tuchel, what did you make of this final friendly before the Bundesliga resumes?
We had good and not-so-good spells - that's how it is when you play again on a Tuesday evening and are looking ahead to Saturday. We got another victory, that was our third game won. But there is still room for improvement in all areas.

What is missing with regard to the game in Mönchengladbach?
A few things still. We are still not completely fresh, the competition and the atmosphere are still missing too. For the point in time we are at, we are looking good on the pitch.

There were still a few careless mistakes creeping in...
I can already assess that. We have now had three friendly matches and we will definitely need more sharpness - but that will come in due course. Today you could see that in some situations we did not give it everything we had defensively to avoid risking injuries.

How important was it for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to get those two goals today?
Very important. Both today and in our last games he missed some opportunities to score. Moreover, he missed the first week of our preparations.

How likely is it looking that Marcel Schmelzer will be able to feature on Saturday?
Schmelle was back in full training on Monday, but was not ready to play today. With that in mind, it is not looking too likely.

Illness forced Shinji Kagawa and Adrian Ramos to miss out.
We took precautionary measures with those two. Adrian Ramos has a small infection, we hope he will be back soon. Shinji has a slight gastrointestinal virus, so we immediately separated him from the rest of the squad to avoid the risk of infection. (fg)