Reactions: “Not enough productive ideas going forward” | OneFootball

Lars Ricken (in the mixed zone): “Not a pleasant afternoon. For one thing, we’re worried about Niki Süle. On top of that, we lost a match due to two penalties – and you’d have to stretch the imagination to say those were justified under the rules. He (referee Siebert, ed.) didn’t even blow his whistle at first. Everyone in the stadium saw what happened. Someone who wasn’t there might then say he should be sent off. But we have our own issues and we agree: we don’t need to point the finger at the referee. We could have shown more courage from the start. Hoffenheim were clearly the more dominant side early on, even if they didn’t have clear-cut chances. If you’re precise in your build-up play, if you’re technically sound and accurate with your passing, you’ll get your chances. But we didn’t do that often enough. In the second half, we were dominant, we pinned them back, but we didn’t put enough pressure on them to create enough clear-cut chances.”

Niko Kovac (at the press conference): “We saw TSG clearly dominate in the first half. We weren’t in the game. We gave the ball away too easily. We didn’t create enough going forward and then fell behind from a penalty. It was given, so I accept that. The hand was away from the body. How that came about is probably not important. The second half was much better from us. We moved the ball around much better, we positioned ourselves better, we pushed the opposition back. Apart from the goal and a half-chance, however, we still didn’t manage to create many more goal-scoring opportunities. And with the second penalty, we lost. That’s a shame for us, but not undeserved.”

(in the mixed zone): “Another bitter defeat. Of course, it’s tough to lose because of two penalties. But that wasn’t exactly our best performance either – not the way we’re supposed to play. And then, naturally, it’s hard to win games like that when we’re up against strong opponents. We need to play with more intensity and get things moving more. When we play like that, we’re really good and a very difficult opponent to beat. We need to do that throughout the whole match – not just for one half or 30 minutes.”Transcribed by Boris Rupert