FC St. Pauli

Head coach Timo Schultz: “We want to go forward and have to factor in losses of possession. What can’t happen, however, is that a loss of possession leads to a player bearing down on our goal more or less on his own four of five times because our cover is far too lax. We gave chances away too easily in the first half and let them get the better of us. It shouldn’t happen and it’s not like us. It simply wasn’t good enough today and that’s what annoys me the most. We knew what to expect here, after all. It’s OK to make the wrong decision occasionally or for the patterns not to work 100 per cent. As far as our grip, body language and awareness in defending our goal are concerned, it simply wasn’t good enough in the first half. We’ll have to point that out in no uncertain terms and maybe introduce a few measures to underline that. It was better in the second half. We had lots of situations around the box but were unable to assert ourselves or create any controlled chances. We never really threatened apart from set pieces and the Lukas Daschner effort in the last minute. That’s another point of criticism today. Tomorrow’s analysis may take a little longer than usual and include fundamentals such as body language, aggression and how you tackle. These are the basics in football and if you don’t get them right it doesn’t matter whether you’re playing Straelen or Rostock because you’ll always have problems.”

Marcel Hartel: “We never got going really, especially in the first half. We didn’t hold the ball up, and Hansa switched the play well. We have to be more aggressive and can’t afford to lose the ball so half-heartedly. We need to analyse the game well. We came out well after the interval, we let the ball do the work and had one or two decent opportunities.”

Johannes Eggestein: “It was a combination of two things. Rostock did well and we didn’t. It obviously doesn’t help when you fall behind so early in away games like these. Rostock gained in confidence as a result, which obviously doesn’t make it any easier. It was the same at Kaiserslautern. The game starts in the wrong direction when that happens. We gave the ball away too many times in the first half and had some situations where they got in behind us too easily. We had no rhythm or control in the first half. Rostock dropped back a long way after taking the lead and left very few gaps. We were unable to get them moving with any countermoves or by shifting the play quickly.”

Jens Härtel (Hansa Rostock coach): “An early goal gives a team a lift, as we saw. We played really well in the first half. I was nervous right to the end because 2-0 leads are always dangerous. We didn’t really give anything away, however, and so there’s nothing to complain about.”

Photo: Witters