Rudy: "We have an obligation as a team"

Here's what the players and coaches had to say after the 2-2 draw against VfB Stuttgart.

Oliver Baumann: "We were good in the first half, but we still cannot concede the first goal like that. Then you give away a lot of possession in the second half and have hardly any access to the second balls. We were then almost exclusively defending. We have to manage to play consistently over 90 minutes. You need to make a mark going forward to order to pin the opponent back. Nonetheless, we mustered up all our courage and gave everything to get the equaliser. But it's not working automatically for us right now. We need courage and sharpness so that we don't get hit on these counters."

Sebastian Rudy: "When you score the equaliser at the end, you still come out of the game with something. But we're of course not satisfied with the result, we absolutely wanted to win this match. The match was even in the first half, Stuttgart then applied more pressure in the second period and scored a goal that way. After the dismissal, we were able to exert a lot of pressure and ultimately got our reward. It was important that we managed to salvage the draw. We will need to go up another notch against Mönchengladbach on Saturday and get the three points. We have an obligation as a team."

André Breitenreiter: "The same old story every time. We started the game very well and you could clearly sense the team wanted to win the match. Our tactical plan came off perfectly. We won possession of the ball back many times and quickly created numerical superiority in the spaces. The equaliser on the stroke of half-time then came out of nowhere; that led to uncertainty and we were lacking fluidity. We had to switch to a back four due to the injuries to Robert Skov and Kevin Vogt; we haven't played that for a long time, you could see that especially in the first few minutes. There were still some big chances to win the game. The team showed great spirit. We picked up too few points in the first half of the season given the performances. More points were possible today and against Union Berlin on Saturday too. But we're not blind and need to be vigilant. The lads followed through with actions today, even if we did give the ball away again for the two conceded goals. But the team tried everything and ultimately got the reward. That gives me strength for the challenges ahead."

Bruno Labbadia (VfB Stuttgart coach): "We saw two different halves. We were missing several things in the first period, I then addressed those at the break. Nevertheless, it was good that we came in at half-time at 1-1. Hoffenheim performed very well in the first half, we couldn't find a way to combat that. We then showed a different side of ourselves in the second half. It's not so easy to flick the switch like that when you have such a young team. We deserved to take the lead. My intuition says that we would've won the game without the dismissal. We were then denied the victory by that spectacular goal. The team was very dejected in the dressing room after the final whistle, we would have loved to win the game. But we'll see the second half as a real positive for us moving forward."