Erol post-Hertha BSC | We never gave up

Following Thursday evening's 1-1 draw with Hertha BSC, Erol Bulut discussed the performance with Cardiff City TV.

City's late equaliser came at the end of a battling pre-season performance as the Bluebirds closed out their tour of Austria, completing a week in the Central European sun unbeaten across three matches played.

“It was a tough test," Erol began. "They had a good shape and tried to keep the ball, they’re a good quality team and probably better than what we played against with Hamburg. 

“From a small mistake we conceded the goal in the first few minutes, but the thing that I liked today from the team was that we never gave up. We pushed until the end to score and then win the game, even in the second half after we made changes. They wanted to change the game and win.

“In the end it was a draw, but generally with the performance of the players and the team I am satisfied, it was good."

With pre-season drawing towards its closing stages and the start of the 2024/25 season drawing ever nearer, Erol reflected on how valuable these friendlies are in preparing for the rigours of Championship football.

“I’ve said before that we’ve needed that winning mentality, and today we saw it from the team," he continued. "We pushed to try to win it, and will have a lot of games in the league like that. We are in a good way, I think.

“We’re getting the ball and making the transition from defence into attack. We have to work on some small details of it, the last pass and touch, but we still have two more games [in pre-season] and then I hope that we will be ready for Sunderland.”

Concluding, Erol added: "We wanted a week of good games in Austria. The first was really good for us to see our level against opponents from abroad. 

"I think that when you compare us to a top German team in the 2. Bundesliga, you can see that we are doing good things. Sometimes it is good to be away from home, and we've had a week full of games to show our performances. 

"Finally, to the supporters who came to support us, I would like to thank them all."