"We weren’t able to reward ourselves unfortunately"

When Sonny Kittel narrowly missed the chance to score the winner against SSV Jahn Regensburg, the HSV players were visibly frustrated. The full-time wistle soon followed, leaving the Rothosen with just a point on Matchday 31. Moments later, however, the players turned their frustration into positivity. Despite dropping two points, the fighting spirit was there for all to see, and with a view to the remaining four games, gives the club hope that the season objective could still be achieved.

Tim Leibold: We played well and showed desire in the second half. With a bit of luck we would have won the game. Given our first-half performance a draw is a fair result, though. We were half asleep at the start, just like we ended the game in Sandhausen. It’s not happening for us at the moment, but we showed a different side to our game in the second half. Still, one point is obviously not enough in the race for promotion. 

Toni Leistner: We just didn’t show up in the first 60 minutes: We didn’t take on any of the fifty-fifty challenges that you need to win in order to come away from here with three points. Sandhausen deserved to take the lead when they did – they showed us how to defend to a man all over the pitch. After the hour mark we started to win more challenges, but on the whole we have to be self-critical, it was very disappointing. That was our problem today and that’s why we lost. It’s a very painful defeat.

Daniel Thioune: I feel sorry for the team that they weren’t able to reward themselves at the end – there was more in it for us today. We didn’t start very well, which was no surprise after our performance in Sandhausen and given Regensburg’s aggressive play. But we showed resilience and the lads all motivated each other at half time. After the restart the team really showed that they are alive and put in a good performance. For this reason, I am confident for the remaining games of the season if we can show the same performance as in the second half today.

Mersad Selimbegovic: We started really well, we were aggressive and attacked quickly, creating several good chances as a result. We deserved to be in front at the break. In the second half we stood our ground for 15 minutes or so, then the pressure from HSV grew to a point where we couldn’t really get out from the back and the game could have gone either way. Both teams threw everything they had at the game and 1-1 is a fair result, we can definitely live with that.