FC St. Pauli

Head coach Alexander Blessin: " We worked on a few things this week and put them into practice really well in the first half. Our shape was really good and we defended the half spaces and the long balls well. Mainz didn’t threaten our goal once in the first half. In contrast, we had some really good turnovers and really should have opened the scoring, but the ball came back off the inside of the post. We have to earn our luck more. It's all the more disappointing when you concede after a long-range shot from 30 metres. It was a mistake, but we could have ironed it out if we'd followed up. We tried everything in the closing stages but conceded a second on the break. We can say we were really good in the first 60 minutes but a bit too destructive after that and we were punished after a very good performance. It wasn't nice to watch from the stands. I was simply too far away from the action and had no impact."

Hauke Wahl: "We were extremely unlucky today, as in the last three games. We were the better team again. We gave little away and had enough opportunities of our own. Sometimes you go through phases when things simply don't go well. We can't always expect Niko to keep everything out. We should have been there to deal with the second ball. He has to be able to rely on us but today he couldn't. Niko has saved our backside often enough this season. Lots of things are going against us at the moment. We hit the post today and the bar at Leipzig. We have to keep going and mustn’t feel sorry for ourselves. Maybe we have to do one or two percent more for the luck to return. We're solid at the back and give little away against sides and players with more quality than us. We just need something to celebrate again and then everything will look different."

Nikola Vasilj: "We're very disappointed because it was a really good performance. We all fought for each other. We were very solid and defended really well again. For the first goal I tried to catch the ball but pushing it to one side might have been the better option. We had a chance to equalise but didn't and then conceded the second right at the end."

Eric Smith: "We deserved to come away with something today because it was an excellent performance. We could have scored two in the first half and had a chance to equalise after going behind. We had enough opportunities but aren't putting the ball in the net at the moment. The goals will come, like they did at the start of the season, if we keep playing like this."

Bo Henriksen (Mainz head coach): "We weren’t good in the first half. Our high press wasn't good, we were four against five at the back. It was tough. St. Pauli played very well but didn't have any really big chances. We defended well. The second half was better. We switched things round at half-time so we could go five against five in the press. That made the difference and that’s why we won the game against very good opponents. It was a very tough game for us. Winning without playing well is exactly the step we have to take."

Photo: Witters