Sandro Schwarz: Our win over Krasnodar will give strength before the rest of the season

— The match was tough. We started actively, played quite aggressively in defense and tackled a lot of balls. We played from a position of strength and scored a goal before the half-time whistle. The second half was different. The game became calmer. We are glad to achieve a well-deserved victory. I think it will give us strength before the rest of the season.

— Did your team lose the initiative in the second half?

— We have created problems ourselves. This can be explained by the fact that we have quite a lot of players who have returned from their national teams. The guys received a serious load there. In addition, we had a difficult trip to Krasnodar. If we could have scored the second goal, the game would have turned out differently. In the second half, there were simple ball losses, and we lacked accuracy in the final stage of the attack.

— Fabián Balbuena took a very long time to get to Krasnodar. How did he manage to start the game so well?

— Yes, Fabián had a very long flight, and I expressed my gratitude to him for what he did today. He joined the team yesterday. And do not forget about the change of time zones, which could affect his performance. But he played brilliantly, so we express our gratitude and respect to him.

— Did you have any fears that Sebastian Szymanski might not return from the national team?

— We are all in a difficult situation right now. I am very proud of the way Sebastian behaved. This suggests that there is a very trusting atmosphere in the team. We are a whole unit, and it's worth a lot.

— Daniel Farke and almost all foreign players have left Krasnodar. Were you interested in playing against this team? Do you communicate with Daniel?

— I know Daniel, but we didn't talk to him before the game. The current state of the team causes only respect. In such a situation, they made a superb performance in recent matches. I would like to pay my respects to the coach who is currently preparing the team.

— You are one of the few foreign specialists who stayed in Russia at this difficult period. How did the club help you decide to continue working here?

— I think that any decision in this situation should be accepted with respect. I do not know Farke's motivation and why he made such a decision, but he must be respected. It is not necessary to compare us, because we are in different circumstances. At the moment, sport is not the most important thing that people have. I would like to express my gratitude to our club, management, staff and players that we managed to stay united and go through this difficult period together.

— Anton Shunin kept his hundredth clean sheet and joined the Lev Yashin Club. What can you say about his achievement?

— We are very glad that our captain has reached this point in his career. He deserved this win together with the team and kept the clean sheet. The hundredth clean sheet is an incredible achievement for him. In general, our goalkeeping team includes very skilful footballers.