“We stayed calm and were rewarded with a win,” said Nuri Sahin in a post-match interview after BVB’s 4-2 over Mainz. On Friday night, the 26-year-old scored his first goal for Borussia Dortmund in over a year, and accordingly he was very pleased: “I’m of course delighted to have scored again after such a long time.”

Nuri, how much a slap in the face was Mainz’s first goal?

(laughs) It was quite a slap! It was not nice as we had gone into the game with high expectations. And so this goal was a bit of a shock for us. But we showed a response which makes it all the more pleasing. Unlike the game against Augsburg where we found ourselves out of the game immediately, we fought back and got rewarded for a great performance.

What did the coach say to the team at halftime?

He said that we had played well and that we shouldn’t lose the plot like we did against Augsburg. He told us to stay calm. We did that and were rewarded with a win.

Were you kind of expecting Kapino to drop the ball before your goal?

I know, of course, how ‘Auba’ is hitting these kind of free-kicks, and that goalkeepers find it difficult to hold onto the ball. Of course, I can’t say now that I “smelled” a chance but in a way I was expecting it to happen anyway. It worked out and I’m of course very happy to have scored again after such a long time.

A word on Auba’s shooting technique?

When we practice free-kicks in training I ask myself again and again how Marco and Auba can shoot like that. Just looking at it makes my knee feel sore. The lads are just so good at it, it’s fascinating.