"This hurts"

Trying everything without reward; Hertha came away empty-handed against Werder Bremen on Saturday, losing 4-1 in the first game of the Rückrunde. Alexander Schwolow expressed his disappointment to the media and tried to make sense of the defeat. "We are massively disappointed, and we’re disappointed by the manner of this defeat. In comparison with recent performances, things were better against Bremen,” said the shot-stopper. Read our summary of the match reaction.

Niklas Stark: We tried a lot of different things and gave it everything, but you have to say that we gave the goals away too easily. We have to get back to creating our own luck. We didn’t have a bad game in terms of football, but Bremen were just really effective in front of goal. We have to stick at it and deal with the situation as it is.

Alexander Schwolow: We are massively disappointed, and we’re disappointed by the manner of this defeat. In comparison with recent performances, things were better against Bremen. We reacted well after going 2-0 down; we were organised, created good chances and helped each other out at the back. We deserved the goal to cut the deficit and if half-time had come three or four minutes later then we would have made it 2-2 before the break because the momentum was clearly on our side. The third Werder goal came at a really costly time and that was another set-back. We have to work as a team to turn things around, every single one of us is responsible. We are fully behind our coach. As a team we are really sorry that there is even such a discussion about the coach. It hurts that we haven’t managed to get more points as a team, but we can only do better together. It’s in our own hands.

Mathew Leckie: It was an intense game, and I thought it was quite even. After we went behind, we had a great chance to equalise through the penalty, but sometimes things like that happen and penalties are missed. We went into the break 2-1 down and we had a few chances to get back into the game afterwards. In these kinds of circumstances when you’re at the wrong end of the table, you're always under pressure and you rarely have luck on your side. Bremen didn't have that many chances, but those they did they took well. Unfortunately, this was typical for us at the moment. We are not allowing our opponents too many chances, but we are still conceding goals. We were also in the game against Hoffenheim, but our problem is that we can't respond to setbacks. It's difficult to say what the reason is, but it's something we have to change.

Davie Selke (Werder Bremen): It was a short game for me unfortunately. I would have liked to stay out there longer, but Alderete caught me and I just couldn't carry on. It was a special occasion for me because I always felt very comfortable at Hertha and in the city of Berlin. So I wasn't celebrating against the club, but just because I was so happy to have put Werder into the lead and because I took such a good penalty. We are all delighted about the victory.