“We deserved more from tonight”

A number of Mainz 05 players fell to their knees with disappointment after the final whistle on Wednesday night. Giovanni Reyna scored the winner for Dortmund to make it 2-1 in the final minute of stoppage time. “It was massively unlucky and massively undeserved,” said Martin Schmidt after the game. The Mainz sporting director was then quick to turn his focus to VfL Bochum. “We have to build on this performance in three days.”

Reaction from the MEWA Arena

Sporting director Martin Schmidt: “It was massively unlucky and massively undeserved. We deserved a point, if not a win based on the second half. We were the slightly more dangerous side. One minor error in injury time cost us. We went toe-to-toe with Dortmund in the second half. It’s a tough defeat to take, but we have to build on this performance in three days against Bochum.”

Finn Dahmen: “We don’t generally concede many goals from set pieces, it’s a strength of ours. The timing of the goal was obviously so disappointing. We started brilliantly, but then conceded a frustrating goal. We took a while to come to terms with Dortmund’s pressure. I think we played really well from the 25th minute onwards. We deserved at least a point. We’re happy that we’re back in action soon and we have another chance to get three points on Saturday.”

Andreas Hanche-Olsen: “We definitely deserved something from the game today because we played well and had a number of chances. I don’t know if their winning goal came from a lack of organisation or a lapse in concentration, but it was a real blow for us. I’m proud to have made my debut today and I’m happy with my performance.”

Silvan Widmer: “A few mistakes led to their second goal and that ruined our evening. I don’t want to just speak about negatives though. We played well for large parts of the game, but we got no points from tonight. Looking to blame anyone won’t help at all. We had the right mentality on the pitch, everyone wanted to play for one another and got stuck into challenges. We need that on Saturday too. We want to win a game against a team on a similar level to us.”