"We lost our way" | OneFootball

Werder have now suffered back-to-back defeats in the Bundesliga (Photo: W.DE).

Post-match reaction to defeat vs. TSG 1899 Hoffenheim

SV Werder Bremen were left feeling disappointed following their 3-1 defeat against TSG 1899 Hoffenheim on Sunday afternoon. WERDER.DE spoke to head coach Ole Werner, several players and Peter Niemeyer, director of professional football, to get their thoughts on the defeat afterwards.

It was a disappointing afternoon at home for Leonardo Bittencourt & Co. (Photo: W.DE).

Ole Werner, head coach: “Overall, it was a poor performance across the 90 minutes. We got off to a good start with the goal but then lost our way and weren’t able to find any good solutions. It was our own losses of possession that then led to them scoring. We came out of the dressing room feeling energetic in the second half and were putting them under pressure. We had more shots but weren’t able to make the most of them. The third goal then put the game out of our reach. Most of the time, it’s the little things that end up determining how a game will go. We will need to analyse the game, because it wasn’t a good performance from us today.”

Niklas Stark: “We lost control of the game after the first quarter of an hour or so. We didn’t win many second balls and that’s what allowed Hoffenheim back into the game and they then made the most of the quality they have. It obviously bothers us, because we want to win every home game we have. But, we can’t start panicking and instead need to remain calm and continue working on ourselves.”

Leonardo Bittencourt: “The first 15 minutes were good and we then took the lead as a result. Up until then, everything was going exactly how we’d imagined. After taking the lead, we simply stopped playing football and I don’t understand why. We over-complicated things and allowed Hoffenheim to create chances easily. They were then able to turn the game around in the first half. Overall, we simply didn’t deserve to win today. Hoffenheim were clinical and scored with the chance they did have.

Romano Schmid: “I think we started well into the game and then managed to take a 1-0 lead. But, we didn’t take any confidence from these good moments in the first half and the first goal we conceded completely interrupted our rhythm. From then on, we made silly mistakes and it was tricky because we were up against an opponent that was waiting to exploit those instantly, in addition to being strong on the break. We had chances to equalise at the start of the second half but we didn’t take them. We had opportunities to find our way back into the game, but we simply weren’t able to. We had wanted to achieve more today, but in the end we’re left standing here after a deserved defeat.”

Peter Niemeyer, director of professional football: “Overall, it was a poor team performance from us. We’d started well and had managed to open up a 1-0 lead, before completely losing our way. Hoffenheim only got better as the game went on, while we failed to win the second balls and allowed them to deliver too many crosses. In the end, we fell just short. We have to take responsibility for it. We didn’t perform the way we expect ourselves to play.”