Heintz and Cologne vow to fight on after latest setback
Despite scoring a sublime equalising goal for Cologne during Friday night’s Bundesliga encounter away to Stuttgart, defender Dominique Heintz was ultimately left disappointed after the hosts netted a last-gasp winner. Bundesliga.com later caught up with the 24-year-old to discuss the Billy Goats’ travails this term.
Bundesliga.com: Dominique Heintz, how do you sum up what was an ultimately very disappointing end to a game for your team?
Dominique Heintz: We had a lot of scoring opportunities and played excellent football for the first 35 minutes. All we were missing was a goal. We were aggressive, stuck closely to our opponents and fought as a team. With a little bit of luck we may have even had a penalty in the game. Yet in the very last second we suffered a huge sucker punch. Football can be crazy like that sometimes.
Bundesliga.com: The referee decided against giving a penalty to your team in the last minute after consulting Video Assist. Was that understandable from your point of view?
Heintz: I don’t want to say much as we prefer to focus on our own game. But of course it’s like a double punishment. First you wait some time for the decision on the penalty and then you concede a goal at the death. You can imagine how that must feel as a player. There is no worse feeling.
Bundesliga.com: Did Cologne lose focus because of the events at the end of the match? Your team seemed somewhat disorganised when Stuttgart scored.
Heintz: It went from one end to another, and in fairness we had great chances to equalise – however, [Stuttgart goalkeeper] Ron-Robert Zieler did really well. Although we are playing some good football, luck is not on our side. We are fighting, throwing everything we have at it, but we simply must score.
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Bundesliga.com: How many more setbacks can this Cologne team take? You’ve now lost seven of eight Bundesliga games this term?
Heintz: Even with the results not going our way, I have to say that it is admirable how we keep coming back. We played well in this latest match but again, we have no points to show from it; but there’s no enjoyment in that. We need points.
Bundesliga.com: Surely with the passage of time, those points will come?
Heintz: We are trying everything. Against Stuttgart, a point would have served us well mentally, but instead we get a slap in the face [with this result]. Now we have to lift ourselves. Next Sunday we have a home game against Werder Bremen which is a real clincher; we absolutely need three points from that one and we will be doing our utmost to get them.
- Dominique Heintz was speaking with Jens Fischer.