'We won our duels and just went for it'

It was tense and tight against Bournemouth, but we came away with a big three points on Sunday.

Shkodran Mustafi spoke to the media after the match and this is what he said about the performance:

on how tough it was…

We had to play against a very good team today. In their last game they played brilliantly, especially when I watched the first half of that game against Manchester United. They played really well. We expected a good, organised team who knows how to get forward when they win the ball. It’s not easy to stay organised, to try to put your football onto this pitch because they know how to play as well. It was a tough match but you have to give credit to every single player on the pitch for us to be able to win the duels and go for it.

 

on whether that was one of our best first-half spells…

To be honest, I’m not someone who likes statistics or all those things that much but for us it was important because we knew that we were quite close in the table. We want to stay in the top four so we knew it was important to win the game today to get closer to the top four and also to stay ahead of the teams that are behind us. That was really what counted for us, it was not about the statistics. We know that sometimes in the first half we start off a little bit slower but I thought today we didn’t. I thought we played quite well. Of course they had a few opportunities as well but I think we created a lot, we scored a goal and then conceded in the final second of the half. It was important that we came out in the second half and did what we have always done in the second half of games.

 

on Tottenham and then United games, whether we need to raise our level…

I think we have to compete. Then, of course, when you want to win against Tottenham you know you have to play at your top level. We did that against Liverpool at home, so we know how to compete, we can compete with everyone and I think that we are looking forward to this game. We have another Europa League game in between, so we have to focus on this one as well because it’s an important competition for us. Then the next game after that is Tottenham, a special game for us and for the fans. We’re going to try to get the win at home.