Schmidt: “You bounce back stronger after every defeat”

Mainz fell to a heavy 6-2 defeat at the hands of FC Bayern on Saturday afternoon. According to captain Silvan Widmer, the Zerofivers weren’t as resolute at the back as they had been in recent weeks. Despite the result, attention now turns to the three remaining games before the World Cup.

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Mainz get their campaign up and running in Bochum

Schmidt: “There’s still work to do, but it was great to get the three points.”

“It was very important for our group that we got off to a good start”

Martin Schmidt: “We lost it in the first half when we went 3-0 down. We can take the fact that we created lots of goal-scoring chances as a positive, as that is usually very difficult here. In that regard, you can say that we executed our offensive plan pretty well, but we were too vulnerable at the back. Our opponents were too often unchallenged in the middle of the park where it is difficult to defend. Our goal to make it 3-1 just before the break gave us a second wind but at 4-1 we lost our way defensively once again. In the end, it’s a heavy defeat that will hurt for a couple of days. Some gaps opened up today that we now know we need to close. We will remain courageous as there are some important games coming up and we need to keep our heads held high. You bounce back stronger after every defeat.”

Alexander Hack: “We gave ourselves lots to do and we wanted to press Bayern high up the pitch. We didn’t do that that well at the start, we were too passive and conceded two cheap goals. When we hit the post, got the penalty and scored the goal before half time, I got the feeling that we were back in the contest. But after the break we didn’t play particularly well with or without the ball and we didn’t defend well enough as a group. At 4-1 the game was beyond us.”

Silvan Widmer: “The manner in which we conceded the six goals was disappointing and we hope that it isn’t the case again this season. Bayern are obviously a top team but we will analyse the game and see that we made it too easy for them. We didn’t perform well enough as a team and we gave our opponents an extra yard of space. We now need to perform like we did before this game in the final three games before the break.”