Match reaction

"We should have put the game to bed"

HSV suffered a cruel penalty-shootout defeat in the DFB-Pokal after a 3-3 draw against Hertha BSC. The players rued missed chances but could also find positives in the performance. Here is the reaction to the game.

Sebastian Schonlau: We had two chances to progress and didn’t take them; we let them back into the game both times. In a few situations we needed to be smarter and maybe could have even closed the game out earlier. Even though we're out of the cup, we can take a lot from this. It was a decent game from us with a lot of fight and mentality. We came back going behind.

Jonas Meffert: It hurts a lot and it’s hard to explain. To concede an equaliser in the las minute twice simply should not happen. It’s unacceptable. Maybe it can happen once, but it shouldn't happen again. It was totally unnecessary. Reese had a good game and caused us a lot of problems today.

Matheo Raab: It's hard to take when you have the lead twice and it looks like you're getting to the next round, and then you get hit with a setback. Penalty shootouts are a fifty-fifty; we should have put the game to bed beforehand.

"It's really frustrating" Jonas Boldt

Jonas Boldt: It was a tight game. Football is always 90 or 120 minutes and a team can equalise at any moment. Hertha threw everything forward. We had them under control for long periods, but as can sometimes happen towards the end of the game, they got the equaliser. It’s really frustrating, and in the end it came down to penalties. Today you could see that we’re a real team and support each other.

Tim Walter: Penalty shootouts are always a game of luck. We experienced that today after coming back very well in the first half. We scored some nice goals. In the second half, we lost our way a bit and weren’t as imposing. We suffered the equaliser shortly before full time and that was a difficult situation. We took the lead again in extra time and looked good, but let up for one moment and let them back in.

Pal Dardai: I am very proud of my team. Thinking about what HSV did to us a few months ago, it was a good start from us. The substitution confused us a bit. We came started the second half well. We put a lot in and forced the mistakes. Penalty shootouts are tough; I was a player too. It was a very close tie but we never gave up and so we deserved the win.