Head coach Sergej Barbarez saw both good and bad sides in our performance against Cyprus: “We conceded goals in the final seconds of both halves. We started the match poorly. The first half was a bit disorganized. We didn’t recognize what was happening in midfield, we weren’t aggressive enough, didn’t stay close to their players, and simply couldn’t get into those duels properly. The second half was much better energy-wise, we had some nice counterattacks but didn’t finish them. This is part of the sport, these things happen. Heads up, we move on. As for absences, we’ve had that issue every game. Today we were missing five players, three of whom are regulars. But that’s part of the game, we don’t dwell on it. I hope things will get better in November and we’ll be able to compensate a bit.”

Captain Edin Džeko wasn’t satisfied with the result: “I think we deserved three points. We had the lead until the very end. Cyprus definitely had more possession than us, but I don’t remember a single chance they created. We didn’t meet our objective.”

First goal scorer Nikola Katić had mixed feelings after the match: “I’m happy with my goal, but disappointed with our overall performance tonight. We threw away a solid step toward the play-offs. But that’s football; we conceded from a penalty in the 90th minute or so. No time to dwell, everything’s still open and we’ve still got the situation in our hands.”

Benjamin Tahirović believes the team can do better than what they showed against Cyprus: “We can and must do better than what we showed tonight. It would’ve helped a lot to get a positive result, to go home with three points, but it is what it is… That’s football, they had a penalty in stoppage time. Now we’ve got a friendly against Malta, then we go to Romania and Austria. We’ll definitely fight until the very end.”