„Showed as a team that we are fully on our game“

„Before the match, we made a conscious decision not to go toe-to-toe with St. Pauli in an open, attacking contest. Given the pace of their forwards, their runs in behind, and their strong build-up play, that was crucial. We were determined to show a response—addressing the lack of fundamental basics that were rightly criticised following our performance in Karlsruhe. I have to give the team full credit here; we executed that 100 percent.

We knew beforehand that St. Pauli would have the ball, and we prepared accordingly. We also managed to create a couple of good opportunities—most notably the massive chance for Milan right at the start, as well as the one for Noah Weisshaupt. Honestly, given our current situation, I am satisfied with the point. I told the team that this wasn’t the kind of performance that warrants running through the streets of Darmstadt in celebration, but it provides an excellent foundation upon which we can build and continue our work. We must deliver these fundamentals—the ones we displayed today—every single time. Once we do that, we can start talking about other things again.

I’m already looking forward to our next home game at the Bölle. The atmosphere today was outstanding once again, and we’ll need that same level of support next Saturday.“

„I think it was a match in which we exerted a certain level of dominance and conceded very little. Despite that dominance, we didn’t create enough chances today. We did have some opportunities, but I would have liked to see us show more drive toward the goal. All in all, we’re taking home a point and have managed to avoid defeat once again. Even so, it’s somewhat reflective of our season—we often find ourselves sitting here feeling like there could have been more in it for us.“

„I think we did everything we could to stay compact and keep things tight at the back. Especially in the final minutes, perhaps no one wanted to take any unnecessary risks. In the end, we held our ground well and kept hoping that an opportunity would come our way—unfortunately, that didn’t happen. But we kept a clean sheet, earned a point, and that’s a fair result. As a team, we showed that we’re fully engaged; we threw ourselves into every challenge and gave it our all right up to the final minute. Today, we just lacked that little bit of luck.“

„I have to say, I’m a bit disappointed. I would have definitely liked to win today—we all would have. But the most important thing today was that we didn’t concede a goal and managed to come away with at least one point. St. Pauli is not a bad side, and they could easily have scored a goal themselves. That said, I felt we were more dangerous and closer to scoring in the second half.“