“Leverkusen deserved to win by two goals.”

Hertha BSC ended the year with a 3-1 defeat in Leverkusen. The Berliners were asleep for the first 25 minutes and went 2-0 down early on. “If you watched our last few games, you can see that we often concede early goals,” said an annoyed Valentino Lazaro after the final whistle.

Fabian Lustenberger: We didn’t get into the game and so we concede early goals. Their second goal was a mess, which no one can take the blame because the ball bounced so badly. We reacted well after and before the break we had many chances to equalise. After the break we conceded very quickly. We had a couple chances to score again but they defended well and deserved the win. They deserved to win by two goals. Now we have to regroup, reassess and will fight again in the New Year.

Valentino Lazaro: If you watched our last few games, you can see that we often concede early goal, because we are not awake on the pitch. Then for the rest of the game, we are chasing goals and that is very difficult, especially away. The second goal was very unfortunate because the ball bounced up just before Rune. Then, we finally woke up and made it 2-1 and pressed for an equaliser. If you go in at half-time and are asleep when you restart, it is a matter of focus. With every minute the game got tougher. Leverkusen played well with the ball and controlled the game towards the end. We need to work very hard over the winter break.

Rune Jarstein: Before the game, I thought we could take something from the game. Unfortunately, that did not happen. For their second goal, the ball bobbled unusually high. I was very unhappy about it and will be annoyed for the next few days. Now, we have to enjoy Christmas and then make it right next term.

Marvin Plattenhardt:  Leverkusen played well. They found room on the pitch and took advantage of it. We were often outnumbered or too late to close down the player. The first goal was a chain of reactions. Maybe, similarly to the last game, we were not fully alert at the start of the game. I hope that we can stop doing this. The second goal, you can see is the pitch’s fault. For us, it was a difficult day, but we have to move on. It doesn’t change how we have played in the first half of the season. We are satisfied but we wanted more from the last three games. In the second half of the season, we want to start playing well again and pick up more points.