We need to be self critical and put this defeat behind us

For Schalke fans, Ralf Fährmann was very nearly the man of the hour when his injury time save denied Wolfsburgs’s Yannick Gerhardt with two minutes left on the clock. However, all the goalie could do was delay the misery; seconds later Daniel Ginczek fired home the rebound securing a 2-1 win for Wolfsburg.  “We’re disappointed because we didn’t imagine the opener turning out like that. We were on our way to turning the game and should have at least taken a point,” remarked Christian Heidel self-critically.

Looking for errors

Gudio Burgstaller was of a similar opinion. He thought the team played a bit too offensively in the last few minutes. “Of course, it’s good because it proves we want to win. However, in this situation, it probably wasn’t the smartest idea because now we have no points. Wolfsburg are a quality side and it would have been good to go home with at least one point.”

A late goal wasn’t the game’s only dramatic moment. In the 65th minute, the referee showed a yellow to Matija Nastasic for his foul on Wout Weghorst. However, following a VAR review the incident was deemed more serious than previously thought and the yellow was changed to a red. 120 seconds later, the same thing happened again, but this time the other way round. The referee initially showed Weghorst red for violent conduct against Burgstaller, however, this was downgraded to a yellow after a VAR review. Both VAR decisions were controversial; however, Domenico Tedesco made the following clear: “We are not going to blame the defeat on the referee. We have to accept it. We all make errors.”

A good attitude is rewarded, but not for long

“In the first 15 minutes we played well, but then we lost our way a bit. We didn’t pass very well in the build-up play which is unusual for us,” commented Heidel regarding the first half. Tedesco agreed with the sporting director: “The first half was poor. The second half was better and we started to win more of the ball. The boys played hard and felt the equaliser was coming”.

It did come eventually, with five minutes left on the clock. Nabil Bentaleb once again stayed cool from the penalty spot and gave the Royal Blues confidence. However, just into the stoppage time the team conceded. “It’s a real disappointment; I feel the team deserved better today,” commented Weston McKennie. The midfielder did, however, manage to keep his head high and remained positive; “The coach says that for every obstacle that we come up against, we’ll find a way to overcome it. That’s what we are going to do with this defeat. We’ll analyse it, but then it’s just something that we need to put behind us. We need to wipe the slate clean for the next game against Hertha.”