Post-game comments: “It’s a brilliant feeling“

Kevin Grosskreutz: “It’s a brilliant feeling. I finally found the net again, and such an important goal at that. I’m overjoyed. We wasted a lot of chances. To celebrate with our fans after a game is one of the best rewards you can get for such a win. Our fans are positively crazy, and I always enjoy it. It’s a great feeling. This is how the goal happened: Julian Schieber laid the ball on a plate for me, I slipped, and didn’t hit the ball properly, but fortunately it went in. The whole team and all of the fans who were there have earned the win. We had a lot of chances, but you always have to believe. To mark the occasion, I will buy the team a beer at the hotel bar tonight.”

Jürgen Klopp: “In terms of suspense, this game had a ”Malaga quality“. We've done everything right in the end, but also got so much wrong when we wasted so many clear-cut chances against a passionate and deep-lying team. We found the net through a scrambled goal from Kevin, even though we had far better chances before. Marseille were a difficult team to play against. You could see that they were under a lot of pressure and they made life difficult for us. We always believed we could win and were in their box every 30 seconds, so the ball was bound to go in. The team gave their all, even though you could see the pressure we were under when Napoli went ahead. Kevin deserves a beer tonight.  He’s a great lad who did everything right in this game and scored the decisive goal. It was great night.”

Sebastian Kehl: “Marseille were very compact and had to play with 10 men after the red card. On some occasions we didn’t play the final ball well, but of course also had some clear-cut chances. We should have sealed the game earlier, but that doesn’t matter anymore. We even won this group, and that’s why this is a fantastic day. We knew, of course, that Napoli were ahead, and that we needed another goal. It was very, very exciting. Kevin’s goal was huge. One should not forget how strong this group was. Each of the three teams on 12 points would have deserved to go through to the last 16. Now we even finish on top of the group, and we are overjoyed.”

Michael Zorc: “We made life difficult for ourselves as we just couldn’t get the ball over the line. It was a fully deserved win. We got chances for two or three games. Now we even advance as group winners, which is a fantastic achievement. It’s also great that all four German teams have reached the last 16. We basically controlled the game from start to finish, but conceded the equaliser from the first shot on goal. We knew, of course, that Napoli went ahead, so we had to score another goal which we quickly communicated to the players. I’m very happy for the scorer Kevin Grosskreutz and the rest of the team.”