“We lost our way after the red card”

For the first 68 minutes, Hamburger SV had the game under control and played as league leaders should. Die Rothosen took an early lead through a David Bates goal in the 16th minute and looked set to take three points away from Regensburg. However, in the 69th minute an effort from Maximilian Thalhammer struck the hand of the already-booked Orel Mangala, who received his marching orders for a second bookable offence. The home side made the numerical advantage count and goals from Adamyan (74’) and Grüttner (81’) saw the game turn on its head, before Vasilijie Janjicic picked up Hamburg’s second red card of the game and capped a frustrating afternoon for the away side. HSV.de has the post-match reaction.

Lewis Holtby: The dismissal threw us off our stride. We dropped too deep and afforded them too much space and that’s where their goals came from. Regensburg battled well. But we can’t deny that we had the chance to make it 2-0 and should have taken it – perhaps then we would have had more security in the game. We lacked the final ball and found it hard to create something today, especially in the second half – that was what caused us problems. We need to score the second goal and kill off the opponents – we left the game open. It is very tough to have lost the way we did.

David Bates: The defeat is very disappointing. We didn’t play well in either half today, but still had chances to go two ahead but didn’t take advantage of them. At this level you get punished for that and we have to learn our lesson - we have to see out games like that. I can’t be happy about my goal because at the end of the day, the only thing that matters is the result.
Pierre-Michel Lasogga: We actually had the game in our hands the whole time but lost our way after the red card, then went behind from a set piece - it’s hard to find words to explain it. It is very frustrating and I don’t know what to say. We know that it wasn’t our best game at all, but still managed to have the game under control and dealt with Regensburg’s long balls well.

Hannes Wolf: It was a tough afternoon for us. We had planned very well and knew how difficult it would be here. We had good stability and deservedly took the lead from a set piece, then had a clear chance to go 2-0 ahead. We didn’t give up much at the back and even started the second half well, but perhaps could have made more of a few situations. After that, we were under a lot of pressure with no let up just before the dismissal. Janjicic was stood by me because we were ready to put him on for Orel, just before the ball struck his hand. After the equalizer we lost our rhythm and conceded the second goal from a long ball. The second red card came late in the game. There is no need to beat around the bush – we haven’t started 2019 well. We need to pick ourselves up and take three points in front of our own fans next time out against Fürth.

Achim Beierlorzer: We wanted to take HSV’s strengths out of the game, but didn’t manage to do that early on. We found it difficult to win possession, and also lost the ball very easily. For the first goal, we had already won the ball but gave it away cheaply, and for the chance to make it 2-0, I feel there was a foul in midfield. We knew that we might not have been able to come back from 2-0 down. The fans really helped us in the second half and their support gave us the momentum and the red card played into our hands. We are very happy with the result – in the end it was a deserved victory.