“We exit the competition with our heads held high”

RC Strasbourg 4-0 Mainz 05

Christian Heidel: “We have to acknowledge that we had no chance. We were deservedly knocked out by a top side. What’s important is that we leave this competition with our heads held high. We lost three out of twelve matches and came up short against the best team. You have to accept that. Strasbourg were simply too good for us today. This won’t leave any lasting damage. We know who we are, but we’re still sad today. When you turn up here with a two-goal lead, you hope to go through. It didn’t work out, but we move on. We had great experiences. It hurts now, but tomorrow we’ll head home and full focus turns to Gladbach.”

Paul Nebel: “We got overrun today. Of course, we imagined it would be different. We didn’t get into the game. It improved in the second half and we were more courageous on the ball, but it wasn’t dangerous enough and we were too open at the back. Sometimes it’s hard to explain. You do a lot of planning, then start so poorly. We’ll analyse, but we weren’t brave enough in the first half – we sat back too much and that encouraged them. The better team won today. It hurts a lot because we worked ourselves into such a good position in the first leg. We have to be honest with ourselves about that. We can’t perform like that again – this weekend’s game has to be different. These experiences in Europe make you hungry for more. Hopefully we can learn from this for the future.”

Silvan Widmer: “I felt good for the first few minutes. Then they took control and the crows got behind them. We also made life difficult for ourselves with silly mistakes and poor body language. When things start going wrong, it’s hard to turn it around. We didn’t manage that today. We’re disappointed, because the position we were in at kick-off was really good. The past few weeks have also been great. We were ready for this game, but we just didn’t show it. We have to be honest about that. We deserved to lose by that margin. We don’t have time to hang our heads. Another tough challenge awaits us on Sunday.”