Rose: “A very painful defeat” - Stuttgart match reaction

We heard the thoughts from both head coaches after Borussia’s 2-1 loss to VfB Stuttgart on Saturday.

Marco Rose: We were hoping to take a step towards Europe here at home today, so it’s of course a very painful defeat. The lads did a decent job in the first half and put a lot of hard work in. We took the lead, but then we suffered from the same problems that have cropped up a lot this season. We had opportunities to score a second goal and had the game under control, even though Stuttgart had improved after the interval. We were too passive around our box in the last 20 minutes or so. Even though we had numbers back, we failed to apply enough pressure on the ball on the edge of the box and avoid some dangerous situations. That’s how you end up conceding a long-range goal and a deflected pot shot. We gave it everything at the end, but we couldn’t avoid the defeat, which obviously doesn’t feel good, and the lads are gutted because European qualification is out of our hands now. We have to mobilise all our strength once more to win in Bremen and hope that things go our way in Berlin.

Stuttgart head coach Pellegrino Matarazzo: I thought the first half was quite even with neither side really creating much. Gladbach just about had the better opportunities though and if anyone deserved to be in front at the break, it was them. We weren’t precise enough on the ball and didn’t look for the spaces that we had spoken about ahead of the game. It speaks for my team’s character though that they were able to show so much energy and aggression in the second half despite conceding right on half time, and went on to turn the game around. It certainly wasn’t an undeserved win and I’m very proud of the lads.