“Playing nicely won’t help us!”

Whilst the Wolfsburg players went straight to the mixed zone, the Herthaner went to celebrate with their supporters after what was a very important three points gained. “We never gave up, not even at 1-0. It wasn’t pretty but in the end it was successful,” said Niklas Stark after the final whistle. The captain knew it wasn’t a beautiful performance: “As long as we’re in the bottom half, playing nice football won’t help our situation, only hard work will get us out.” We collected all the reactions after the game.

Dodi Lukebakio: That’s football. The ball just came to me and I put it in the net. I’m so happy for the team, because we worked so hard for the win. This result will give us more belief now going forward. It was a difficult game, but we believed in ourselves right until the very end and that showed in our performance. It also shows just how much work Jürgen Klinsmann has done with us. He’s always positive, no matter the situation. After we equalised we were hoping we could get the win. A game lasts 90 minutes and I’m just so happy for us as a team that we used all of them well. It’s doesn’t matter where I play, so long as I can help the team.

Niklas Stark: We never gave up, not even at 1-0. We stayed compact in defence and tried to get forward from there. It wasn’t pretty but in the end it was successful. As long as we’re in the bottom half, playing nice football won’t help our situation, only hard work will get us out. When we’re flying high and we have more confidence in ourselves, then we can start thinking about playing amazing football.

Maximilian Mittelstädt: It was a battle, and we threw everything we had in to it. We never lost faith in ourselves, we defended well and we created some good chances. Then of course we got the little bit of luck we needed. We’ll gain a lot of morale from this win and we can be pleased with the three points.

Rune Jarstein: Of course we’re incredibly happy to get three important points. We showed character after going a goal down, we fought back and turned the game around. We played so much better in this game than we did against Bayern Munich, even if we didn’t create as many chances – this time we were just more efficient. We wanted to stay solid at the back and then get forward quickly when we had the ball. The goal we conceded was a bitter one: I took a step in the other direction and was unsighted when the ball came in. Hopefully we’ll jet back up the league now, everyone is so close to each other at the moment at the top and at the bottom. We have to continue to give everything in training now as we have been doing.

Marius Wolf: We came here to win. The game wasn’t the prettiest, but the end result is what counts. If I’d have taken my chance in the first half, the game would have gone a lot differently. But I’m just happy that we kept believing in ourselves and got the win in the end. We’ve been working so hard and it says a lot that we managed to turn the game around. The win will do us good and three points are always important.