Lainer: “We have to stick at it”

After the defeat to Borussia Dortmund in the DFB-Pokal quarter-final, right-back Stefan Lainer discussed his appraisal of the match, the current situation and the weeks to come.

…how he saw the match: We had high hopes for ourselves and we showed during the 90 minutes that we wanted to progress. We gave it our all and didn’t leave anything in the tank. Dortmund countered really well to take the lead and that made the difference in a tight game. As far as our performance and our passion, though, we can’t be too hard on ourselves.

…the disappointment after the defeat: We are out of the Pokal and that hurts a lot. It was a really sad evening for us because we played with passion but didn’t get our reward for that. We could maybe have scored a goal that would have taken it to extra time, but the game was up after 90 minutes.

…the side's current poor form: It’s always hard to say why you go through phases like this. We are trying basically everything, you could see that against Dortmund. Right now we are just in a bit of a sticky patch but we have to stick at it. We now have to show that we stick together as a team.

…the weeks to come: We are looking ahead despite the defeat. Talking won’t solve the issue but on Saturday we have another important Bundesliga game against Bayer Leverkusen. On top of that we are still fighting in two competitions, the Bundesliga and the UEFA Champions League. That’s what we have to focus on now.