“We’re disappointed, but we have to come back from this!”

There were some frustrated Herthaner in the mixed zone after the 4-0 home defeat to Bayern Munich, but many pointed to the positives shown in the first 60 minutes of the game.

The game didn’t exactly go as planned or as hoped for the Herthaner on Sunday, even if they did play record champions Bayern Munich. 4-0 after 90 minutes, even after a goalless first half. “Up until the hour mark, we played really well – we didn’t let them through and we were good in defence, and on top of that our forwards also went at Bayern up the other end,” said Marvin Plattenhardt in the mixed zone. Unfortunately, Thomas Müller’s opener for Bayern proved to be a real sucker punch for the home side. “It just took the wind from our sails and we found ourselves always sat back defending and then we conceded too many goals too quickly,” said the captain. We collected all the post-match reaction.

Davie Selke: I don’t like talking smack after the game. In the end we lost 4-0, but we played well for long stretches of that game. In the first half, most things went as we had planned. The ball was sticking to our feet up front and we had a few chances on the counter. We did cause Bayern a few problems, you can’t deny that. Unfortunately, despite that we just couldn’t get our noses in front and then in the second half we didn’t have enough possession. After they got their first goal the game just got harder and harder for us from there. But that’s also because Bayern played really well. We’ll take this loss like men and we want to move on now from this game.

Marvin Plattenhardt: Up until the hour mark, we played really well – we didn’t let them through and we were good in defence, and on top of that our forwards also went at Bayern up the other end. We had two or three really good chances then. When they got their first goal, it just took the wind from our sails and we found ourselves always sat back defending and then we conceded too many goals too quickly. That was the real shame, because it’s always easier to carry on conceding after you concede one. We have to take this defeat on the chin now and try and get some points against the teams around us in the table.

Dedryck Boyata: We wanted to try and limit the amount of chances teams like Bayern had. This worked out really well in the first half, like it did before the winter break. But then we made it too easy for them. The team is fit, but it’s hard to defend for so long in such a big game whenever we have a strong opponent. In our current league position we need to pick up a lot more points fast. We can only do that by playing on the defensive. The loss hurts, although It’s important to know that there’s still a lot of games left and the season isn’t over yet.   

Marko Grujic: After the first 45 minutes we were feeling good and had had
some chances, and we thought we could get at least a point. But as you can see from our faces, we’re very disappointed. We had a really good winter break, and we’ve conceded barely any goals in our last four or five games, so this result is a bit of a slap in the face for us. We were very concentrated in defence and showed our commitment, but after we let in the first goal we let the rest in too easily, which is something we’ll have to work on. But we need to be optimistic about the second half of the season. Whenever we play a bigger team we need to stay optimistic and keep believing. We are not too far away from the relegation zone, but we definitely have the quality in the team to be higher up. We have to start fighting back now.

Lukas Klünter: Of course, we had something different planned and
wanted to win the game, or even take a point. We played well for 60 minutes and did what we set out to do. We have to look at the positive side though. It’s not great of course that we threw it all away in the second half. We wanted to be defensively compact and then go on the offensive through our pacey wide players. But that only partly worked. Unfortunately we didn’t take full advantage of the few chances we got and didn’t put enough pressure on the opposing goal. On the penalty, you can give it, but you don’t have to, in that situation. I should have been a bit cleverer, so that one is on me.