“We have to blame ourselves”

Ludovit Reis: We have to blame ourselves for not managing to win with an extra man on the pitch. We had a lot of possession, but the tempo should have been much higher. In the end, we had a few chances to make it 3-1, and then the equaliser happened. That was very unfortunate. We’re still top though and in a good position. We can’t be negative now. Of course we’ll discuss what we should have done better, but, ultimately, we’ll keep moving forward.

Jonas Meffert: We weren’t clever enough at first after the early red card, but then we were very efficient in scoring those goals and went in at the break in a good position. We wanted to add another goal, and we had some very good chances. We were dominant, and Schalke mainly looked to threaten from set pieces. The equaliser was so disappointing, because we didn’t have much time left to score after that. We also didn’t manage to pile on the pressure as much as we needed to. None of us are happy with the result. We made life difficult for ourselves today.

“That’s football. Sometimes, it can be unpredictable” Emir Sahiti

Emir Sahiti: I scored two goals today. I’m very happy about that, but I’d be happier if we’d won. I thought we were the better team today and created a lot of chances. Unfortunately, we couldn’t take them. That’s football. Sometimes, it can be unpredictable, and so can the 2. Bundesliga. We need to draw a line through this and concentrate on giving even more in the coming matches. I really do sympathise a lot with our fans. They’re always behind us and support us no matter what. We still have four matches ahead of us. We’re determined to give everything and make the fans proud.

Daniel Elfadli: We’re very disappointed. That’s normal after a game like this, where you play with an extra man for so long and don’t win. That’s not up to our standards. We weren’t incisive enough. We tried to find a way to win on the pitch, but we didn’t inject enough of our dynamism into our play. Although this feels like a defeat, we still need to stick together and stay calm. We’ll only succeed together. This has been what’s made us stand out and perform well so far. It’ll hurt for a day or two, and then we’ll need to put it behind us and switch our focus onto the next game.

“We can learn our lessons from today” Merlin Polzin

Merlin Polzin: The early red card changed the shape of the game considerably, along with the game plan we had before the match. We weren’t able to stop ourselves conceding the opener. After that though, we took control of the game and had it in our grasp after the two quick goals. We made a few changes at half time, as we didn’t want to take any risks after the yellow cards. In the second period, we were even more dominant and had even more forays into the final third. We couldn’t find that third goal. We have to blame ourselves for that today. It’s brutal here at Schalke when the stadium conjures up that one chance and makes sure that they somehow score an equaliser. We’re obviously disappointed with the result after how the game went, but we can learn our lessons from today. We’ll stick together as a team and as a club.

Kees van Wonderen: We obviously want the fans to be proud of what they watch. They watched a team today who fought until the end. We could easily have gone home empty-handed when playing 90 minutes with ten men against such a strong side as HSV. We thought the game had got away from us, but the team achieved the impossible. That was a brilliant performance.