“We all showed a good reaction today”

Laszlo Benes: We all knew we’d played poorly in the last two games. We all shoewd a good reaction today. When we give it our all from the first minute and play attacking football, then we end up playing like that – we barely give our opposition a sniff. Today was a game that was going to be decided by a goal. We knew that going into it. I’m pleased we kept a clean sheet. I wanted to step up and take the penalty. I didn’t understand why the ref didn’t immediately award the penalty, I was going to score before I was taken out. 

Jonas Meffert: Each one of us wanted to do better than last week from the very first minute – and everyone did do better. We really needed to win this one, and I’m glad we did. The red card was obviously a key moment. Fortuna defended like Elversberg and Osnabrück did, so you could say that compared to those games, tonight was a huge improvement. 

Daniel Heuer Fernandes: We needed to stay patient. You can’t just go gung-ho against opposition like Düsseldorf and pen them in from the first minute. Düsseldorf are a quality side who also had chances of their own tonight. We needed to control the game and to not play too open. We found a good balance tonight. We gave it our all in the tackles and second balls. Throughout the 90 minutes, it was a very good performance, and also a very good reaction. We of course would prefer not to find ourselves in such a situation where we need to react strongly, but we’ve approached this week of training and the game tonight well. We now need to play with as much energy and willingness as we did when we play away. 

Robert Glatzel: It was hugely important to show a good reaction after the last two games. We didn’t just manage to do that tonight, but also against a direct rival on our level. It wasn’t pefect, but it was a great effort over the 90 minutes and a deserved win. Our next game is against another promoted side - and we can’t allow for any more surprises or excuses. 

Tim Walter: We were very, very disciplined today. Tonight was a match between two good teams. Both tried to create chances through spells of possession. We were very active today, and wanted to do the exact opposite to what we did last week. We found a lot of joy on the wings, but unfortunately not enough came from there. Overall, it was an even game. Our subs tonight were really able to make an impact. Andreas was involved in winning the penalty, Jean-Luc was fouled twice for the red card: I’m really happy with how well they did. We were then able to defend our league, and as the more active side in the game, I think we deserved the win. 

Daniel Thioune: Congrats to HSV on what was a deserved victory. We defended the spaces well in the first half and didn’t allow them many chances. We surrendered possession of the ball, but it was okay to play so defensively because that’s how we imagined we would play. However, when your team is on 14 points after seven games, you expect more. We weren’t brave enough or convincing enough in attack and didn’t utilise the space well enough. We spoke about that at length at half time and did slightly better in this respect in the second half. Until the red card I was feeling good about things. Unfortunately, we slacked off a bit after that, which means we conceded defeat, and deservedly so, because we didn’t see enough of the ball.