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Schalke discipline key for Keller

According to FC Schalke 04 boss Jens Keller, defensive hard work at FC Basel 1893 laid the foundation for "an unbelievable strike" by Julian Draxler that won the Group E points.

Schalke coach Jens Keller reacts at Basel
Schalke coach Jens Keller reacts at Basel ©Getty Images

Murat Yakin, Basel coach
We tried to play our own game, but our opponents were too strong today. Our precision in the final pass was sometimes a bit off. It wasn't our best day. Our attacking players weren't able to make an impact. Expectations ahead of this game were very high, but we always have pressure and that wasn't the problem today. We tried everything but it wasn't meant to be. Normally we are always able to score a goal, but we lacked the element of surprise today and things just didn't work out.

I'm disappointed because it was a close game and a goalless draw would have been the right result. But you get punished for the smallest mistakes in the Champions League. We have to improve the way we defend set pieces and we simply weren't able to break through Schalke's defence.

Looking at the table, everything still looks good for us. We have three points after two games against Chelsea and Schalke and that's more or less what we aimed for and what we thought realistic. We lacked attacking options in our game today but Schalke also played well.

Jens Keller, Schalke coach
It was an unbelievable strike from Julian [Draxler] but he meant to do that, he has the quality to score goals like that. The entire team fought bravely and worked hard against the ball. That's why the win was deserved in the end.

We are happy to have won today with a strong performance against quality opponents. Even after we took the lead we continued to work hard defensively. We had a game plan against Basel and thanks to a lot of discipline from my players we didn't allow them any notable chances. That was great.

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