“It was a tight game,” said Julian Schieber after Sunday’s game against SC Freiburg, and this sentiment was shared by his teammates who all agreed that it was “very tough”. Here are the post-game reactions.

Kevin Grosskreutz: “It took a lot of effort to win the game. The pitch was tough to play on, and Freiburg are a tough side fighting against relegation, so we knew we would have to work really hard. In the end we won because we managed to restrict them to almost no chances. But we took ours – an unstoppable shot by Kehli.

Julian Schieber: “It was a tight game and we had to work really hard. Freiburg were strong opponents, and we made a lot of little mistakes that made life difficult for us. But in the end, it was a deserved win for us.”

Nuri Sahin: “We struggled to get into the game and were made to work for the win. Freiburg sat very deep and showed little intent to get forward, and this made life difficult for us. It was clear that we needed to score. After we had achieved that, it was much easier. In the end we won and that’s all that matters.”

Roman Weidenfeller: “We are very happy about this victory as it was a very tough game. It’s nice and important to take all three points home with us.”

Lukasz Piszczek: “It was a tough game for us, and fortunately we were lucky enough to win it. We made a lot of little mistakes, but had we built our attacks better we could have won more comfortably.”

Sebastian Kehl: “It was a tough game. Freiburg did a great job, and we were not able to get our game going. It was fairly even for long spells, and we were maybe a bit fortunate to win. Everybody knows that Oliver Baumann stands quite a long way off his line, and I saw him doing that a few times during the game. It also takes some luck to score goals, and I just let fly. Our coach always says, ‘If you don’t shoot, you don’t score.’ I was very happy about this goal because we really need the three points.”

Mats Hummels: “We were fortunate to win. It really looked like a draw would be inevitable as both sides failed to create many openings. It was an important step for us, an absolute big point. Only second place matters to us. The incident involving Sokratis could have easily been a red card. These situations are difficult for the referee to judge.”

Jürgen Klopp: “A tough game. Freiburg dominated possession but struggled to convert it into chances. We scored a lucky goal, but in the closing stages we could have added a second, third and fourth on the break. But we didn’t do that, and that’s why we had to work hard until the final whistle. If you win games like this, you go on and win the league. Well, that’s no longer possible…”