"Everyone gave 100%!"

An impressive comeback from 1-0 down, four well-taken goals, a controversial penalty incident at the end, the home game against Bayer 04 Leverkusen had it all! Accordingly, the Hertha players in the mix zone had to take a moment to breathe after the 2-2 draw. “We had the chance to win the game right at the end, so we are still a little bit disappointed at the moment,” was Oliver Christensen’s assessment of the game, before adding, “When we look at the performance and at the way we played against a good team with a lot of quality, then overall it is positive. We have to keep playing like this week after week!” His teammate Suat Serdar was on the same page: “We now have to keep going, everyone gave 100%. If the performance is good enough, then anything is possible, regardless of the opposition!” herthabsc.com has the initial reaction after the game against Leverkusen.

Jonjoe Kenny: I am really disappointed right now because I feel that we deserved to win the game. We competed well all over the pitch and won our duels – and we also had chances to score a winner right at the end. I don’t know if it was a penalty. We now have to keep going and keep working hard after this draw with a strong opponent. We are getting better and we have taken another step in the right direction.

Suat Serdar: It would have been fair if we had come away with three points at the end, especially if you consider the penalty incident – for me it was a clear handball. But we can’t change that. We now have to keep going, everyone gave 100%. If the performance is good enough, then anything is possible, regardless of the opposition. On Friday, we face a difficult task against Mainz, but if we go into that game and play the same way once again then we have a good chance.

Oliver Christensen: We had the chance to win the game right at the end, so we are still a little bit disappointed at the moment. But when we look at the performance and at the way we played against a good team with a lot of quality, then overall it is positive. We have to keep playing like this week after week. You can see and feel that we are getting better and better, and that we understand the coach and his ideas more and more. The fans in the stands seemed pleased, which is a good feeling.

Marc Kempf: It is important for us as a team that we take our chances. We had some chances and scored twice, so we are moving in the right direction. Unfortunately, after going 2-1 up we were not able to build more of a lead and to finish the game off. It’s unlucky that we didn’t get a penalty. His hand stopped a possible goal. But, that’s football: sometimes they get given, sometimes they don’t.

Marvin Plattenhardt: It was a very intense game, backwards and forwards. We will take a point, even if it is very painful to have conceded an equaliser having led 2-1. The goal from Marco Richter was sensational; he also scores goals like this in training. He has shown once again what he can do. It also shows that we have a deep squad if we are able to bring him off the bench. With the number of attacking opportunities we had, we have shown that we can play well going forward – most of all when attacking from out wide. We want to build on this in the future and obviously get more points. Now, it is about analysing the game and especially the goals against us, in order to cut out errors. The fans were outstanding. We really enjoyed how they supported us for the full 90 minutes. After the game we all went over and thanked them.

Jean-Paul Böetius: Looking back at the way the game went, it is two points dropped. We had a lot of good chances and dominated the game. We had good opportunities to beat Leverkusen, but this unfortunately didn’t happen. I don’t know why the ref didn’t go and look at the penalty incident again for himself. Honestly for me, it was a penalty for handball.