Bellarabi: 'We can be satisfied with fourth'

You set the record for the fastest Bundesliga goal ever scored - nine seconds into the first round of the season. Tell us about your personal highlights this season.

Karim Bellarabi: I think it all started with that goal, I was looking forward to this season a lot. I'd worked out a lot and had a good training camp. I was really glad it worked out with a goal - and after only nine seconds.

What else will you remember about the past 34 matchdays?

I think the most important thing is that we played a good season as a team. We can be satisfied with fourth place. We can now qualify for the Champions League. For me, personally, it was also a great year. I was called up to the German national team - that was really special. I think it was a very successful season for me.

You scored 12 goals and contributed 9 assists. Was there a specific moment when you thought: This is going to be my year?

Of course. Right from the start things fell into place. I got on well with the coach, and we communicated a lot. I felt good from the get-go and was able to push myself. I worked hard, and the coach put his faith in me. Everything came together.

Who were your favorite stars as a kid and how did they influence you?

As a little boy, you have a lot of respect for professional football players. One of my great dreams was just to meet a football player. I think most boys dream of being a pro football player. That was my goal as well. I had a lot of idols. I always liked watching Ronaldinho or Zinedine Zidane play.

Your breakthrough came relatively late. Any idea why?

I spent a year out injured. That was a difficult phase of course. And then I was loaned out to Braunschweig. I only returned this season and that's when it happened. I have no problem with it taking a while, I'm just happy things worked out.

How much of the street football you learnt in your childhood still around in German football these days?

I think I learned a bunch of things that have stuck with me, but I can't say precisely what. I can say that we went out to play everyday and learned all our skills. Maybe I owe my speed to those days, but I can't say for sure. I only know that the older kids picked me early on when we were dividing up teams. That of course gave me self-confidence.

Which Bundesliga team took you by surprise in 2014-15?

None of them were a total surprise. Bayern Munich were way out ahead, but they do what they do very well. Wolfsburg were maybe a slight surprise, but before the season even started you could see they had lots of quality. I think they played really well as well. Gladbach came in third because they played a good season and have a good team. So I don't think any of them came as a complete surprise.

DFB Pokal quarter-final round

FC Bayern reached the next stage by overcoming Braunschweig at the Allianz Arena and are now facing tough opponents in the quarter-final.

Borussia Dortmund, Bayer Leverkusen, 1899 Hoffenheim, SC Freiburg, VfL Wolfsburg and Borussia Mönchengladbach are the six teams from the Bundesliga that have made it to the next round. The seventh team comes from the third division. Arminia Bielefeld qualified for the quarter-final by defeating Werder Bremen 3:1.

The DFB Cup quarter-final pairings will be drawn on Sunday at 6:00 pm CET by former German women’s football player and 2003 World Cup winner Nia Künzer. ARD-Sportschau will be broadcasting the draw. The matches will be played on 7th and 8th April.

Bayer Leverkusen take slim lead in Round of 16, defeat Atletico Madrid

Hakan Calhanoglu scored a second half goal as Bayer Leverkusen ground out a 1-0 first leg victory over Atletico Madrid Wednesday night and the Round of 16 tie remains wide open heading for the second leg in Madrid on March 17.

A huge save from keeper Bernd Leno and a willingness to chase every ball to break up Atletico's attacking fluency combined to be enough for the Germans to take their single goal advantage to Spain. But they struggled to create enough chances against an Atletico side dealing with injuries and won more because of their effort than any technical edge.

Diego Simeone's game plan seemed to be for Atletico to absorb early, then try to grab an away goal later. It worked until Calhangolu produced a fine finish and when Tiago was sent off with 15 minutes to play Atletico had to tend to protecting their slender disadvantage and could not throw players forward in search of that equalizer.

The best first half Bayer chance fell to defender Emir Spahic, whose speculative, long-range drive flew past Miguel Angel Moya's leap but clanged back off the crossbar and post at the top left corner in the 26th minute. There were a couple of scrambles in the box that favored Leverkusen, one forcing Mario Mandzukic to clear his own goal line, and another bringing a good reaction from Moya to fist a Karim Bellarabi cross away from the head of Josip Drmic.

Simeone had to make two enforced changes, as well, taking off Guilherme Siqueira in the 38th minute, then Saul  four minutes later, both of the Atletico players collecting first half knocks. Atletico had already missed Koke (hamstring) who failed to make the 18.

The introduction of Jesus Gamez for Siqueira Atletico seemed to produce a spark and they well could have scored twice in the closing stages of the opening half as Leverkusen lost its way and the visitors produced their best spell of the night. 

Leno had to react quickly in the 39th minute to sweep an Arda Turan cross off Antoine Griezmann's head, then produced the match-saving effort four minutes into stoppage when he one-handed a Tiago drive away from his left-hand corner. The shot came through heavy traffic the Leverkusen keeper could not have seen it until the last second.

Leverkusen finally goy their reward for hard work 12 minutes after the restart when Karim Bellarabi carried into the box on the top right, drew three defenders to him and then slipped the ball through to the open Calhanoglu. The resulting shot was a rocket that whizzed past Moya to the opposite corner.

Atletico thought they were level with 15 minutes remaining when Fernando Torres was open at the far post to tuck in a corner kick that was flicked on across goal, but the goalline official ruled the ball had gone out of play at the near post before being passed to Torres.

Then, when Tiago collected a second yellow card in the 75th minute, Atletico had to survive the final stages with 10 men. Leverkusen could not add to their advantage, however, so Simeone probably left for home feeling some level of confidence for the second leg. Bayer's Roger Schmidt might feel his side's effort was worth more than the slender edge gained against last year's beaten finalists, who have been hard to beat in their Vicente Calderon Stadium.

Tin Jedvaj Signs Permanent Contract with Leverkusen

Bayer 04 Leverkusen have completed the permanent signing of Croatian international right-back Tin Jedvaj from Italian outfit AS Roma.The 19-year-old, who initially joined the Bundesliga club on a two-year loan deal in summer 2014, has signed a contract at the BayArena until 30 June 2020.

'The best option'

"Tin Jedvaj has great potential and has consistently shown that in the few months he's been at Bayer 04," explained Leverkusen sporting director Rudi Völler. "His versatility is a real plus for us, so why we decided to wrap up the deal as soon as we could."

An equally delighted Jedvaj, who was recently voted Croatia's most promising youngster and has made 17 appearances in all competitions so far this season, scoring twice and chipping in with one assist, said: "Bayer 04 are the best option for me and good for my development. I really want to get stuck in at Leverkusen."

We couldn’t apply ourselves - Klaas-Jan Huntelaar

Schalke were unable to score a goal against a well-organised opponent. As a result, there was a huge sense of a disappointment following the final whistle in Leverkusen, signalling a 1-0 defeat for the Royal Blues. schalke04.com has collected the thoughts from the players.

Klaas-Jan Huntelaar:

We didn’t link up with each other enough. We tried to deal with Leverkusen’s pressing in the first 15 minutes and made use of long balls. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to really apply ourselves throughout the game. It was a tactical battle with few goalscoring opportunities for either side. Ultimately, a set piece decided the game. We simply didn’t play enough football. We couldn’t win the second ball often enough and we weren’t able to produce any dangerous moments as a result.

Benedikt Höwedes:

We knew that we needed to be a little more direct to minimise the impact of Leverkusen’s pressing. The plan was going well, but then Leverkusen scored a wonder goal; no keeper would have stopped it. After falling behind, we didn’t see enough of the ball or create enough chances. We have quality players, so we need to be a bit cleverer in our play. Leverkusen attacked us strongly and instead of countering we used the long ball a bit too often. Despite that, I think we played well and are heading the right direction; we’ll pick up points in the coming weeks for certain.

Max Meyer:

The game was even for the majority of the time. Leverkusen found the bit of quality needed to open the scoring. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find an equaliser. I hoped that I would be able to create something once I came on. I will be giving it my all in training this week in the hope of impressing the coach.