FC St. Pauli

Head coach Timo Schultz: "We're obviously relieved. After a spell in which things haven't gone too well for us in terms of results, the lads showed today that they're a genuine unit who are prepared to go through fire and water for each other. We had a great atmosphere on the pitch and on the bench, everyone got behind the lads. We were fortunate to win in the end because Hannover had a very good phase after the equaliser where we were rocking at times, but we eventually picked ourselves up. We got a better grip on the proceedings and had our moments on the break. That Igor got the goal, of all players, is a source of great satisfaction for the whole club, as we haven't had much to celebrate recently. It certainly feels better than in the last few weeks. We've pulled much closer together again since the half-time break at Würzburg and wanted to jettison everything that's been weighing us down after all the setbacks. It's not as if everything was bad in the weeks we weren't successful, but we had the luck on our side today and got our reward. I'm really happy for the lads and everyone who follows FC St. Pauli."

Igor Matanović: "I don't know what to think. My emotions are all over the place and my whole body is shaking. It's a wonderful feeling. We were fired up, the mood on the journey down to Hannover was good and I knew we'd come out fighting. Now we've got our reward, which is fantastic, of course. It was a superb feeling when I was celebrating with Paqa and everyone else joined in."

Guido Burgstaller: "I think it was an excellent performance in the first half. We could have led 3-0. We lost our way after they scored and were all over the place. Hannover got better and better. That we didn't fall apart after their two goals will give confidence for the games to come. We were a bit lucky to win in the end but we deserved it on account of our first-half showing."

Rico Benatelli: "We've finally won a game. We played very well in the first half and took a two-goal lead. We also started the second really well. We created lots of chances but didn't get the third goal unfortunately. We then had a difficult phase where we conceded twice and Hannover came close to turning the game around. At the end, when we had a man more, we took one of our chances and finally got our reward for all the hard work in recent weeks."

Photos: Witters