“To show this kind of character is a big positive!”

Our Blue-Whites were slightly self-critical, but also relieved and happy about the character they showed in their 2-2 draw away at VfB Stuttgart. No wonder all these emotions were on show – the trip to Baden-Württemberg was a rollercoaster. “I’ve got mixed emotions, as we all wanted to get the win. We came back well from going 2-0 down – big compliments to the whole squad for that,” said Alexander Schwolow, reflecting the general Blue-White feeling. Our number 1 emphasised how our lads showed their character in the game. “To show this kind of character after just a few days with a new head coach is a big positive! There were also some good footballing moments in the second half too.” herthabsc.com have all the reaction from the game here.

Marco Richter: I’m coming out of the game with mixed emotions. We really wanted to win but fell behind, then we showed our character and came back well. We actually started well too, but made silly mistakes and didn’t close down spaces consistently enough. Nevertheless, us Berliners stand strong and keep fighting – we kept our heads up and earned our point. The two goals will do ‘Jove’ good just as much as the rest of us – I’m happy for him.  

Stevan Jovetić: I’m pretty happy with our general performance. We showed character coming back from 2-0 down and earned our point at the end of the day. Our first goal was called just offside but we scored again just before half time and then we started playing better football. At half time the coach said that we should keep believing in ourselves and keep playing with the ball. Of course we wanted to win but coming back from two goals down is good enough. We want to keep doing our best in the next few weeks to get some better results.

Niklas Stark: We can speak about winning a point, as we came back from 2-0 down, especially as it was away from home. At the start we didn’t think about dealing with their deep-lying midfielder who kept playing chipped balls over the top. We fought well after going behind, stuck at it and didn‘t give up, so in my eyes it was a well-earned point. We all wanted to stay compact and collect points that way, but we can live with it only being one point and now we need to concentrate on getting the best out of the next game.

Alexander Schwolow: I’ve got mixed emotions, as we all wanted to get the win. We didn’t defend well in the first half and got surprised by one or two situations. Nevertheless, we came back well from going 2-0 down – big compliments to the whole squad for that. To show this kind of character after just a few days with a new head coach is a big positive! There were also some good footballing moments in the second half too – the equaliser was superbly played. We need to have another look at the goals we conceded and analyse what we can do better in situations like those.

Vladimír Darida: It’s a well-won point for us given the circumstances. We conceded two sloppy goals in the first half an hour, but kept playing it forward with courage and did some good things. It’s a bit of a shame that we couldn’t come all the way back, but we can live with a point. We’ll need to do the technical things better against Bielefeld and score a couple more goals. On Ishak’s disallowed goal: It’s not offside for me. The ball flew over my head, I didn’t block the goalkeeper’s view – he had a full view of the ball.