Yahoo Sports Stuttgart look ahead to PSG after Mainz defeat: “We’ll turn our anger into energy.”
Saturday’s 2-0 Bundesliga defeat against Mainz 05 ended a run of four consecutive wins for Sebastian Hoeneß’ VfB Stuttgart. The Swabians began the calendar year perfectly until falling to Bo Henriksen’s side at the MEWA Arena.
The first stumble of the new year came at an unfortunate time for the 2023/24 Bundesliga runners-up. Stuttgart must face PSG in a do-or-die Champions’ League fixture on Wednesday.
The VfB trainer wished to emphasize that – prior to conceding the opening goal in the 29th – his team had still largely played well.
“The first 28 minutes until conceding the goal were good,” Hoeneß repeated several times at the post-match press conference. “After that it was simply not enough. I don’t think we can muster many arguments that we deserved more here.”
VfB sporting director Fabian Wohlgemuth and lead-striker Deniz Undav concurred.
“We were clearly inferior today,” Undav told the Sky microphones. “I don’t know if there’s much more to say about it. We were simply worse than Mainz and they deserved to win.”
“We let ourselves be discouraged today,” Wohlgemuth added in his post-match interview. “We didn’t settle into our rhythm and didn’t have enough presence.
“We only won the aggressive duels we needed to win one or two times. In light of that fact, we must admit that we deserved to lose.”
Undav, Hoeneß, and Wohlgemuth nevertheless remained in agreement that the fifth league loss of the season had little-to-no bearing on both the team’s strong start to the season and Stuttgart’s prospects on Wednesday.
“I think a game like this must be taken in context,” Wohlgemuth said. “Even though we’ve been traversing a learning curve, we’re still in the process of figuring out how to manage energy in both our head and our legs.
“We just didn’t succeed today,” the VfB administrator concluded. “[but] there will be a ‘Championship atmosphere’ on Tuesday’s [home UCL fixture]. It’s a special game. I think the pressure is more on them [PSG] than us.”
“We’re not satisfied, but aren’t going to question or fundamentals,” Hoeneß added. “We’ll shake it off and turn the anger into energy and anticipation over the next few days.”
“Today just wasn’t our day,” Undav summed up, “but a win on Wednesday will make up for it.”
