Grillitsch: "A bitter evening"

Florian Grillitsch: "It wasn't good enough from us in the final third today. We were too inefficient. The final or the penultimate pass wasn't right today. It was that way throughout the 90 minutes. We had 16 shots on goal; one of them has to go in. We're obviously very frustrated. It's a bitter evening for us."

Ihlas Bebou: "We were not efficient going forward. Stuttgart were better in front of goal. We made the wrong decision too often. We have to work to get our luck back. We came back in the second half and showed a lot of attacking momentum. It was obviously very difficult once we went 2-0 down."

Sebastian Rudy: "It was an open encounter; the match was end-to-end. Both teams had opportunities – and VfB took theirs. We got into the final third often and with ease, but we were then too careless with our final ball; that was why our attacking play broke down. At times too hard, too soft, too imprecise – that's why we unfortunately didn't have more chances. We must take the blame for that."

Sebastian Hoeness: "We didn't have the necessary depth in our game. The goal we conceded obviously didn't help us; Stuttgart were able to counter after that. We created several chances, but it could've been even more. We were not clinical today; we need to work on that. We need to get back to picking up points again. We didn't manage that today, though we didn't perform badly."

Pellegrino Matarazzo (VfB Stuttgart coach): "We made a good start in the opening 30 minutes and controlled the game. Hoffenheim rarely dominated, aside from the final 10 minutes in the first half. After that we showed great composure and, all in all, deserved to win."

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