Thomas Reis: The first half wasn’t good enough for a side in a relegation battle

Thomas Reis:

We weren’t at the races in the first half and were far too passive. Only our fans were fit for the Bundesliga.  We let Hoffenheim knock the ball about and they had a few decent chances. The first half wasn’t good enough for a side fighting for survival. The opponents wanting to get stuck in more than us is something that I can’t accept. You have to show a better mentality if the opponents have more quality and I didn’t see that from my team in the first half. We tried all we could in the second half, but then came the penalty that had to be retaken. We had one or two chances to get back in the game, however over the whole 90 minutes we weren’t good enough to get anything.

Even though today’s defeat hurts, we have to simply keep on going. We’ve got a really important game next on Friday and we really want to win it – and perhaps need to in order to stay alive. I’m confident that we will show a different side to ourselves at home.

Pellegrino Matarazzo:

Our first half was good and would have been even better had we taken our chances. I wasn’t happy with our performance at the start of the second half. We didn’t manage to keep the ball at all in their half. Our substitutions provided us with some stability. Overall, it was a deserved win for us and it will give us some real confidence going into the coming weeks. The table looks a lot better than it did three matchdays ago, but we have to keep on performing every week, otherwise we could have trouble again.

Ralf Fährmann:

The way we conceded both goals is disappointing. However, looking at the overall chances for both sides, we didn’t offer enough, despite hitting the woodwork twice. Hoffenheim had more of the ball, better periods of play and more chances. The coach told us that we lacked our best attributes from recent weeks. It wasn’t good enough from one or two tonight.

Marius Bülter:

We didn’t play well in the first half. Hoffenheim kept threatening from simple long balls. Everybody knew how important this game was and of the chance it provided for us. Not taking that opportunity, especially because of the way we played in the first half, is really disappointing. We fought hard after the break and gave our all. It wasn’t our best game, though we at least did the basics well. We will only succeed if we stick together – something the fans showed after the game.