Thioune and Füllkrug hail incredibly hard-fought 3-2 win for Bremen at Mainz

Bremen hold on for 3-2 win in Mainz

Werder Bremen head coach Daniel Thioune and striker Niklas Füllkrug have savoured an "incredibly hard-fought" 3-2 victory over Mainz earlier on Saturday at the Mewa Arena.

Thioune praised his side’s positioning and work-rate after taking the lead and defending deep in the closing stages.

"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.

Füllkrug: exhausted after deep defending

Scoring a brace from the penalty spot, Niklas Füllkrug underlined 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," the striker said.

"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."

Füllkrug also paid tribute to the hosts. "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," he said.