“The boys threw everything at it for 95 minutes”

Christian Heidel: “It didn’t have a lot to do with football out on the pitch today. It was a real relegation scrap and a battle of attrition. The boys gave everything that they had. The tank is pretty empty following the game. All in all, the result is alright, but if we had scored at the right moment, then we would’ve had a chance to win the game. A point from two home games is not what we were hoping for. However, it’s also about the team’s performance for me. Both games could’ve ended differently, but the situation hasn’t changed. Nevertheless, I’d like to talk about the incident with Ajorque – it’s a nailed-on penalty in my opinion. Consequently, I’ve learnt from the referees that an opposing player getting injured is okay in these situations. Someone needs to explain to me why nobody in the VAR centre in Cologne took a look at it. It was a bad decision, but we still had further chances to score. However, we’re not blaming anyone. The boys threw everything at it for 95 minutes.”  

Jonathan Burkardt: “Scoring a goal for the first time in so long was a great feeling in the moment. I thought that we’d then have the momentum on our side. Unfortunately, it was gone again just a few minutes later because we conceded a goal just before the break which we shouldn’t have let happen. I’d never played on a pitch like this before. The passion and battling spirit were there – you could see that we gave everything for Mainz 05. That’s the positive thing, even though a point is of course not enough. That’s why we’re disappointed first and foremost. We wanted to win and to close the gap. Now we’re just looking at 16th place.”

Tom Krauß: “A point’s not enough. We can’t be satisfied with that. You get relegated with this kind of points tally. We have to keep going, even though it’ll be a tough game in Stuttgart on Sunday. We took the lead today and should have gone into the break 1-0 up. The state of the pitch is not an excuse today, even though it was difficult to play on. We have to start winning games in order to move away from the bottom of the table.”