“That was a tough blow,” Bo Svensson bluntly admitted at the press conference after the DFB-Pokal second round defeat at Hertha BSC. “Not only because of the result, but the manner of it.” The Mainz head coach saw his team go toe-to-toe with the second-division side in the first half, but his players were no longer in a position to turn the game around after the body blows of conceding from penalties shortly before and after half time. Frustration and helplessness took hold of everyone in Mainz colours.
05er reaction after #BSCM05
Sporting director Martin Schmidt: “It’s not good enough in the Bundesliga at the moment and also not good enough to go through against a second-tier side in the cup. The opponent deserved to win. We saw an improvement in our performances against Gladbach, Bayern and Leverkusen. Against teams like Bochum and Berlin, where we have the ball and need to play football, we lack the creativity to force our opponents back with dominant possession and create chances. We’re lacking that completely at the moment. We have an easier time as underdogs. You can see that Bo’s trying everything. The players aren’t repaying his confidence on the pitch. It’s at a standstill in every department.”
Leandro Barreiro: “It was very bad from us, an embarrassing performance. What can you say when you’ve lost 3-0 to a second-division team. They dominated the game and deserved to win. I can’t explain it. Words fail me. We’re listening to the coach and we still played well in some parts of the first half. We managed to get into the spaces that we discussed beforehand, but we made too little of them. We conceded a goal at the worst possible time and went into the break with a bad feeling. It was vocal in there and we discussed some things. We came out and conceded from another penalty five minutes later. Currently, we’re not resilient enough and in a position to come back from this kind of deficit. You could see that. At the moment, we need a good result that we can build on. It’s very difficult for everyone, as well as the fans. We spoke with them after the game, and of course they’re angry. We understand this anger and we have a duty to do more. We’ve said these things multiple times in the last few weeks, but we’re just not doing it. The situation isn’t hopeless though. The good thing is that we’ve got the next game in three days and we should focus on that.”