FC St. Pauli

Head coach Alexander Blessin: "Congratulations to Norderstedt on the performance and especially their goalkeeper. We really helped to warm him up. We could have done better in certain situations and created better positions from which to shoot. That meant he was involved in the game a lot. Our premise was to calm things down by getting an early goal. We played really well up to the 90^th minute. We created lots of chances and our gegenpressing was good, which meant we gave little away as a result, but we were left biting our nails at the end. We're glad to be through to the next round."

Hauke Wahl: "I'm incredibly tired. Our rest defence was good and we were good in the duels. We gave Norderstedt two or three chances late on, but over 120 minutes that's normal. We can be happy with the way we played. The opposition goalkeeper had an incredible day today. He won lots of one-against-ones and kept everything out. We still could have scored a few all the same. We're relieved to go into the season with a positive feeling. The rounds ahead of us will be much more fun and we're looking forward to them."

Danel Sinani: "I'm almost lost for words. We started well and had lots of clear-cut opportunities. I don't know why we didn’t score. Perhaps we were nervous because it was our opening game, but the only thing that matters now is that we're through to the next round. We're creating chances and that’s good. We just need to go the next step and convert them. I'm sure we'll do that next week."

Louis Oppie: "We're extremely relieved after the game today. We didn’t get our reward in the 120 minutes but settled it in the penalty shootout. I don't know why that was. We had some good chances, but the ball wouldn't go in today. I'm confident that will come. We saw some good things today like our gegenpressing and all the chances we created. We had good intensity and we'll take the positives from the game. It was a nice premiere for me at the Millerntor, but I've been told that league games are something different again."

Elard Ostermann (Eintracht Norderstedt coach): "The lads are obviously disappointed in the dressing room but we can be very proud. We survived the opening stages with a bit of luck and Lars Huxsohl in goal. We're very proud of the way the players acquitted themselves after that. It was a tremendous battling performance. Late on we were hoping to land a lucky punch and we had two or three good chances. It would have been nice. At the end of the day we have to draw a line under it quickly because we have the league right in front of us."

Lars Huxsohl (Eintracht Norderstedt): "I didn't think too much about things today, I just got on with it. That was the key. We played with lots of concentration and were very focused on the moment. It was a very special game for me. I picked up a knock and couldn't take any goal-kicks, so I'm glad I made it through to the end. We're going to the fair now and then we'll see where we end up."

Photos: FC St. Pauli/Witters