Akpoguma: "We were lacking something"

Marius Bülter: "We lacked a few percentage points in the first half. Leverkusen then capitalised on their first two chances, after which we were denied a clear penalty. The referee tried to explain to me why it wasn't a penalty, but I think he also knows that it was a bad decision. My opponent slipped and it wasn't intentional, but that can't be the deciding factor. It wasn't a good performance from us today, but we can take heart from certain phases. Overall, though, it wasn't good enough. We've fallen behind too often in recent weeks. It's not easy to come back again and again, and we didn't manage that today. "

Adam Hložek: "We were 2-0 down early on. In the second half, we had more confidence and played better football. We also had better chances than before. Leverkusen were more dangerous than us and we can't win like that. But now our focus has to be on next week. We can build on the second half there."

Kevin Akpoguma: "We conceded goals too quickly in the first half to be able to pose a threat to Leverkusen. Everyone gave 100 percent, but we have to improve with the ball if we want to win against teams like this. We let them counter-attack too easily. We had more of the play after the sending-off, but we weren't dangerous enough. We have to get on top of this to keep the relegation battle away from the Kraichgau. We lacked something today. We showed too much respect to the opposition at the start and we had Thursday's game in our bones. We've used up a lot of energy over the past few weeks. We're in a difficult situation in the Bundesliga, but now we can recharge our batteries. Hopefully some of the regulars will be back next week. Union Berlin will be a very important game so that we can drag them down and put some distance between us and the bottom."

Christian Ilzer: "I'm finding it a bit difficult to categorise the game. There were phases that were good, but good is not enough to come away with something in Leverkusen. The two goals we conceded came too early and too easily. That made the game very difficult for us. We realised that we didn't have the necessary freshness to take something away with us here. We scored to make it 3-1 right after the sending-off and if it had got to 3-2 it might have been exciting again, but in the end it was a deserved win for Leverkusen. I'm annoyed at how easily we conceded the goals. At the moment, a lot of playing time has been shouldered by a few players, which is why we're lacking freshness. But the lads didn't let themselves down and tried everything. They believed they could get a point right to the end. They showed mentality once again, and I'm taking that as a positive."

Xabi Alonso (Bayer 04 Leverkusen coach): "There were two games today. 60 minutes with even numbers and 30 minutes after the sending off. We did very well with the ball. The 2-0 lead helped us. Once we went 3-0 up, we had everything under control. We made some changes after the sending off. Of course, we had less of the ball, but we didn't give away much."

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