"In the end it was too little too late"

Joy and sorrow often go together in football - as was the case on Saturday afternoon (09/11/19) in Olympiastadion. The Blue and Whites delivered, against the favoured Leipzig, a dedicated performance and led 1-0 at one point with a well-deserved goal. But this joy turned into pure disappointment over the course of the game as they eventually lost 4-2 and went home epty handed. The players in the mixed zone were visibly disappointed. "In the end it wasn’t enough, we have to gather ourselves now and get some points after the international break," said Davie Selke.

Lukas Klünter: I cannot comment on the scenes after the final whistle, as I have not seen them yet. More importantly, we lost the game in the second half – mostly due to the Leipzig counterattack. We did well in the first half and played as we had planned but if we let them break out on the counter like they did, we have no chance against such an opponent at the back. The current situation is definitely not to be underestimated. We still have some difficult tasks ahead of us, so it won’t get any easier in the coming weeks. We have to sit together during the international break, have a heart to heart and then go to Augsburg for what will be a very important game.

Davie Selke: We knew that Leipzig were coming to Berlin with huge quality. In the first half, we showed what we intended to do and played well for short spells. After the break, we started well, but in the end it was just not enough. I don’t want to blame the referee, that would be wrong. We lost 4-2 and that's just not good enough. We have to gather ourselves now and start again. After the international break we have to get some more points on the board.

Karim Rekik: At the time everyone wanted to continue playing, nobody had really complained. I didn’t really hear anything myself. I took the ball in the face, maybe it somehow hit my hand, but from that distance what was I supposed to do? The second goal was also very lucky from Leipzig’s point of view. We actually had a good game, Leipzig had no more chances than we did. After the break, it became difficult to get at them. Of course, the situation isn’t easy for us after three defeats in a row now. It is important that we stay calm and get through this phase. Things can only get better.

Marius Wolf: We did well in the first half. Our plan worked and we took the lead. Then there was a quick penalty against us, that was annoying and so was the 2-1 – they were so lucky. In the second half we had to open ourselves up a little more to try and get the goal, and I think everyone saw that we fought and tried everything. Plenty of the 50:50 situations in the game didn’t go our way. Niklas lay bleeding on the field after a challenge in the Leipzig penalty area - I do not understand in some why certain things are looked at and others aren’t by VAR. Nonetheless, we can’t afford to get ourselves down, we have to go again as a team.

Maximilian Mittelstädt: We took the lead after what was a good start. Of course, then we were unhappy to concede the penalty. Karim was literally a metre away, how could that be handball? Then on our end, Niklas Stark almost had his nose broken with an elbow and that’s not even looked at. I do not understand the world anymore. Now we have to clear our heads, draw the right conclusions and pick up points elsewhere. We stopped Leipzig from playing their game for the most part and their win was a little lucky you could say. We gave everything, but when you watch Leipzig play, you can see the quality they have out on the pitch. Nevertheless, they didn’t cause us too many problems. We tried everything and we fought until the very end.