“A mixture of disappointment, dissatisfaction, and frustration”

Nicolai Remberg: It was a frantic game which we deserved to lose. Our plan to play long up to Bobby worked well and he had an outstanding game, held up the ball, and we then looked to win the second balls. We did that well but didn’t get forward effectively during the second half. On top of that, though, it’s simply not clever play to keep weakening ourselves by getting red cards. The sending-off was unfortunate. He didn’t mean to do it but inadvertently made a nasty tackle. Once again, we found ourselves down to ten men and had to chase the game. Our task now is to get out of this situation together. A lot is going to be coming our way in the coming week, but we have to get through it as a collective. Sticking together now is the real art. 

Daniel Heuer Fernandes: A lot of what we set out to do came off in the first half. We broke through the press, played plenty of long balls to Bobby and won the second balls, too. That didn’t work quite so well in the second period as a result of tactical changes from the opposition. They made it 2-1 with a wondergoal before we received a real setback, since a red card makes it much harder to turn a game back in our favour. It’s frustrating to finish the derby a player short. Eight red cards across the season is certainly a high tally. The defeat is a tough one to take, but we’ll stay true to ourselves and press on. The job at hand now is to put this game behind us quickly and focus on the next task. There are four games left and we want to win each of them. 

Robert Glatzel: Werder deserved to win but despite that we did not play badly. We gave it our all and the performance was decent, but we lacked real clear-cut chances. In a heated game, there was a lot going on and everything was to play for until that red card. The referee was not the reason for the result, certainly. If we had been able to create more pressure before the deciding goal, then Werder might have had to be more conservative, but we were just lacking that bite in our play. Today’s wasn’t a great game for us but we do need to take it with a pinch of salt because we still have everything in our own hands.

Merlin Polzin: Congratulations to Daniel Thioune and Werder Bremen for the derby win. This afternoon was full of emotions for us: a real mixture of disappointment, dissatisfaction, and frustration. We’ll need a couple days to process. We wanted to do everything we could to compete as the significance of this game deserved. You could sense that. It was an intense game and the level score at half-time was justified on the balance of play. We then failed to show up in the decisive moments, and our passion for and understanding of the defensive side of things appeared to be lacking at the right times. Now, we start afresh, accept today for what it is and, although it’s hard right now, we will make sure we’re well prepared for the final four games of the season.

Daniel Thioune: We struggled in certain areas of the game throughout the first half and didn’t handle Robert Glatzel well. Nevertheless, I have to pay the team a huge compliment. We were aware of how tough this match would be and the criticism that we didn’t appear to be up for the derby in the reverse fixture. The way we approached the game was brilliant. It was a derby that had it all: plenty of energy, incredible goals, red cards, and heaps of emotion. In the lead-up to the goals to make it 1-1 and 2-1, there were some very physical challenges, bordering on the limit, but that balances itself out. In the second half, we were much better in our play and made the most of the atmosphere in the ground, which really spurred us on. In Jens Stage, we had a player on the pitch who can contribute so much, even with only one training session in the tank. He acts as the glue which holds the dressing room together. We’re very happy to have won the derby.