Manuel Baum: Satisfied with the performance but not the result

Manuel Baum:

There were a lot of ups and downs in the game today. We conceded a penalty, equalised, conceded another penalty, had a goal chalked off and then equalised at the end. I think you have to give the lads credit for how they dealt with everything that happened today.

There was more in it for us today. I’m satisfied with the performance but not the result. It feels like a defeat. I think we were the better team and we were closer to winning it than Mainz, even if they had a few good chances. We fought hard for 90 minutes and battled until the end. Our first aim was to fight Mainz but we also played good football on occasions. We weren’t always lucky in front of goal, missing the target narrowly and losing our footing too. We are taking steps in the right direction but there will still be some difficulties.

The referee had a tough job today. I rate Patrick Ittrich highly. The second penalty shouldn’t have been given though, especially after a VAR intervention. I had hoped that this decision would have been corrected – it was more of a foul by Jean-Philippe Mateta. I also thought the first penalty was controversial. You can give them, but it wasn’t stonewall. A few things came together today.

Jan-Moritz Lichte:

We are frustrated that we didn’t win the game. We had several chances to increase our lead at 2-1. We will analyse the game now in our time. We’ll win games like this if we are more clinical.

Omar Mascarell:

I am proud of how we came back as a team once again. The team’s attitude is spot on and the mentality was great too. In my opinion, we played well and would have deserved to win. We had a few good chances to score but couldn’t take them. It’s frustrating to concede two penalties. I can’t say so soon after the game if they were the correct decisions or not. I’ll have to watch them on TV first.