None of Werder’s personnel really wanted to analyse the situation in the Bundesliga table Saturday afternoon. "I am not really able to talk about that right now," said a disappointed Per Mertesacker. And manager Klaus Allofs was in a similar mood. "Talking about the standings after a game like this is very difficult," said Allofs.

Asking around the Werder players, it was quickly clear how painful it was for them to look at the results of the game day. "If you look and see that Leverkusen really did lose again, then you realise just how important it was to take at least one point here. We could have taken a huge step towards third place today. But that makes the defeat that much more difficult. Now we can put the Champions League qualification to the back of our heads because five points in five games is a lot to make up," said Aaron Hunt. Marko Marin has written off third place altogether, saying: "After the game we don’t need to talk about third place." Clemens Fritz also groaned talking about the three points Bremen let get away and give Dortmund a cushion. "We had made up some ground on them over the past couple weeks. But now there is space between us again. That’s what makes this loss so bitter," said Fritz.

The Green-Whites now have a simpler, clearer job over the final five games. "Now everyone can refrain from talking about where we want to go and which teams we are watching out for. We just have to win our games. But it’s also clear that we don’t have to look towards the middle of the standings," said Allofs.