Three goals conceded, very few successful challenges and almost no goal chances of their own. Werder would like to forget the first half against Mainz at Coface Arena...
Three goals conceded, very few successful challenges and almost no goal chances of their own. Werder would like to forget the first half against Mainz at Coface Arena...
Three goals conceded, very few successful challenges and almost no goal chances of their own. Werder would like to forget the first half against Mainz at Coface Arena as quickly as possible. Things didn't go much better in the second half. Captain Clemens Fritz was accordingly disappointed with the team's performance. "The match today was an impudence. We failed as a team because we slept through the match - I don't have any better explanation. We have to accept this. Everybody has to look at themselves. We didn't win even every second ball, couldn't hold on to anything up front. Mainz were able to do whatever they wanted. If you play like that, you won't take any points from here," said Fritz.
Teammate Zlatko Junuzovic was also clear in his opinion. "That was one of the worst halves ever and we have played some pretty bad halves this season. The entire team did just the opposite of what we wanted to do. In one half of play, we were able to destroy everything we had struggled to build up beforehand. That can't happen," criticised the Austrian. "Once you have gotten some confidence, then you have to play completely different. That makes it all the more unexplainable why we couldn't build on this momentum. I have no words to say," said ‘Zladdi'.
Clemens Fritz: "We had built up quite a bit in the last couple of weeks. We supported one another, everyone took on a bit of responsibility and if someone made a mistake we all overcame it. None of that was there today. Everything that we had built up, we tore back down in the first half. That was a wasted day."
Robin Dutt: "We really need to talk about our work on challenges. They were one of our strengths in recent games, but not today. Mainz were clearly better than us. They are really playing well right now. We were missing everything we did strong against Hannover and Schalke."
Zlatko Junuzovic: "Mainz were better in all areas in the first half, they just ran over us. They had so many chances, won every other ball and won all their challenges. It was a little bit better in the second half but only because everything was decided already."
Thomas Eichin: "We knew it wouldn't be easy today. We had to go into the challenges. Mainz showed us the way in that regard. They beat us with our own weapon. They beat us in the challenges and took the lead early. Mainz's victory could have been by a couple more goals. The difference was totally okay. I hope that we take this match as a warning."
