"We will collect ourselves now"

A 2-1 win against VfL Wolfsburg doesn’t change a disappointing finish to the 2022/23 season, but at least it was a winning end. “It was not the season that we had imagined, but obviously we are happy to have been able to win. A nice moment,” said Florian Niederlechner. Marco Richter said: “The win is secondary. I still can’t completely believe that we’ve been relegated,” said Hertha’s number 23. herthabsc.com has all the immediate reaction to the game in Wolfsburg.

Florian Niederlechner: It was not the season and the end to the season that we had imagined, but obviously we are happy to have been able to win. A nice moment.  Tjark Ernst was excellent, a world-class performance. Now, we will collect ourselves and then attack the new season once again. Pyrotechnics has no place on the pitch, but we have brilliant fans who we can promise that next season will see a team that will give everything and hopefully will get back up to the Bundesliga again. I am up for the challenge.

Marco Richter: The win is secondary. I still can’t completely believe that we have been relegated. Yes, my goal was nice but that doesn’t really make me feel better now. After a game like this the overwhelming feeling is sadness. Personal questions about my future are in the background for now. I now have to process this, which will not be easy. We are in good exchanges and will see what happens next.

Tjark Ernst: It is an indescribable feeling. I dreamed of playing in a Bundesliga stadium as a kid. It was particularly special for me because my father was also a professional footballer and I often went to the stadium and experienced it from an early age, so I am really proud to now make my debut! It is not a given to get this chance. On top of that, I’m really pleased with my performance, but also with that of the whole team. We wanted to go into the holidays with a good feeling and we managed to do that. The way that we threw everything into it was fantastic.

Jean-Paul Boëtius: If we had played games like this earlier then it would have gone differently, but that’s the way it is unfortunately: Hertha BSC have to go to the 2. Liga. Hopefully, this game is the beginning of a good chapter ahead of the upcoming season. I don’t know at the moment what this means for me personally. My dream is always to play at the highest level. What happens with me and what happens with the coach is in the hands of other people, we will see.