Anton Stach: “It’s extremely frustrating. I’m completely broken by the goal we conceded. We really played a good game, perhaps even our best one. That makes it all the more bitter that we didn’t get the three points. We defended very well. We wanted to be courageous and bypass the pressing; we also did well off the ball. We have to carry that forward and keep going like that after the international period. Then it will be tough to play against us. We’ve conceded many goals; I would’ve been extremely happy if we’d kept a clean sheet. It’s extremely painful today. We’ll be raring to go again in one or two days.”
Oliver Baumann: “It is very bitter. We fought brutally, until the last minute. Then it was our turn and the ball then hit Akpo on the hand. It’s really bitter, very unfortunate. The spot-kick was then too close to the middle for me, hence why I could not steer the ball to the side. That’s frustrating. It was our best Bundesliga match of the season. Everyone fought for each other, the attitude was super. That’s exactly what we have to demand of ourselves, then we’ll be successful. That has to be the basis, we defended very well. I’m looking forward to the international matches. There’s a lot of excitement.”
Andrej Kramarić: “It of course feels bad. We had earned the three points with our battling performance but we didn’t have the rub of the green in the final seconds. We played a decent game but were too passive and defended too much in phases. But for me, Stuttgart are one of the best 10 teams in Europe at the moment, especially on the ball. It was definitely an improvement for us, but we have good quality in the squad and can play a lot better with the ball. And that must be the objective too.”
Pellegrino Matarazzo: “I find it a great shame that we only picked up one point today. The last action of the game cost us the victory. You can view the incident either way. The lads showed a brutal spirit from the beginning. The match plan came off very nicely in the opening phase. The lads were prepared to suffer today. We also pressed well in the second half. We allowed many crosses in the final 20 minutes. But I don’t want to reproach the lads for anything. Stuttgart had a very good structure. It was somewhere between a good and very good performance and another step forwards. I’m proud of the team spirit.”
Sebastian Hoeneß (VfB Stuttgart coach): “The opening phase was not good from us. Hoffenheim immediately had a good chance. We were not satisfied and made some tactical adjustments. That helped us to get into the game. We conceded the goal in our best phase of the first half. Going behind was bitter for us. We played a great deal in the Hoffenheim half in the final 30 minutes. We could’ve forced more situations there. We could’ve scored the goal earlier in order to perhaps even win the match. But we’re happy that we still managed to score the equaliser late on.”