"The disappointment is enormous"

Sebastian Schonlau: We have missed a key aim for us once again, which is not an easy situation for us. The desire and the energy were there, but we played with too much uncertainty and were too error prone from the beginning of the game. That was the main problem today against a good opponent. We had set out to achieve a lot and it really hurts to be out of the running already with one game to go. The reaction of the fans and the support during the game, the encouragement after the game – that is never a given, it was absolutely amazing and sets this club apart.

Miro Muheim: We’re extremely disappointed, it is absolutely gutting. We didn’t start the game well, didn’t play cleanly enough, made too many errors and then you end up with a game like this one. This was absolutely not what we set out to do. We wanted to give it everything to maintain the chance of finishing third, but it just didn’t work. The disappointment is enormous.

"We didn’t put in the type of performance that you need to win away at SC Paderborn"

Steffen Baumgart: The team wanted it and they fought hard, but we made too many errors and didn’t put in the type of performance that you need to win away at SC Paderborn. That didn’t have anything to do with the attitude or the desire, though, instead we were missing a bit of clarity and bravery and as a collective we couldn’t completely compensate for our personal mistakes. We are obviously very disappointed but today we just lost a game, we didn’t miss out on promotion through this evening alone.

Lukas Kwasniok: We got off to a good start, went into the lead early and defended passionately after that. My team implemented our plan out of possession well, we also ran a lot and very hard. It was a good game from us overall, I just found it annoying that we had to keep fretting right until the end because we didn’t manage to score a second goal and put the game to bed despite having good opportunities. HSV always remained dangerous in isolated situations with their individual quality but we got over the line in the end and it was a deserved win.