Stach: "More was possible"

Anton Stach: "We did not play a bad game and put up a fight even when outnumbered. There was more in it today and we could've taken something from the match. It is of course bitter. It became difficult after the red card, but we nonetheless did well. We wanted to stick together as a team and that worked well. We had chances and at the same time gave little away – and that with only 10 men. We're disappointed and angry because more was possible. Now we'll take it game by game. Today we showed that we can compete. We still have six finals ahead of us."

Tom Bischof: "It is a very frustrating defeat. We settled into the game well, dominated the first 20 minutes and had our chances throughout the match to level the scores, even after we were down a man. It was definitely a step forward, we didn't fall apart even after the red card. That's the most important insight, that we stuck together well and fought outstandingly. We'll take it game by game, we have to analyse the match and then put it behind us, keep going all-out and get three points against Mainz."

Christian Ilzer: "I think that we played a good game all in all – both before and after the red card. Unfortunately, we did not get the reward for it. My team did not make many mistakes, but the ones that we did make were punished. That makes Leipzig the deserved winner. Nonetheless, we'll take plenty of positives from it. In the first 20 minutes in particular, we got a lot right. The team has dealt with the difficult situation very positively. We had the double-opportunity to equalise and came very close."

Zsolt Löw (RB Leipzig coach): "We've had a challenging few days. There was a change of coach on Sunday, the cup tie was on Wednesday, the game against Hoffenheim today. We had a very short preparation period. It was very turbulent, so one cannot expect everything to go smoothly. The legs were heavy in the opening stages, the players were tired. Hoffenheim performed well, but we got into it more during the course of the game. I'm therefore proud of the lads."

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