Baum: “It is incredibly disappointing to be eliminated in this way”

It simply isn’t possible to lose a match in a more heart-breaking way. After an incredible effort over 120 minutes, including a stoppage time Alfred Finnbogason equaliser in normal time, FC Augsburg have been eliminated from this season’s DFB-Pokal. Marcel Halstenberg scored a last-gasp penalty to send visitors RB Leipzig into the semi-finals. “It is incredibly disappointing to be eliminated in this way,” said a visibly upset Manuel Baum after the match. Here is the post-match reaction. André Hahn: “It simply just disappointing when you lose a match like this. We deserved to take the match to a penalty shoot-out but conceded in the dying seconds. For this reason, we are incredibly disappointed.” Daniel Baier: “We’re simply gutted and rightly frustrated that we have been knocked out of the DFB-Pokal tonight. It was a dream of mine to play in the final in Berlin once in my career, but this dream sadly won’t come true this season. Tonight’s match was a battle of attrition between the two sides and a true cup tie, in which there was everything football could truly offer. However, we also must take the positives out of the match, knowing that we were able to compete with a truly top side for much of the match.” Gregor Kobel: “I can’t think of a time more disappointing than tonight. We are incredibly disappointed. We played very well tonight and managed to compete well with Leipzig. After we drew level in stoppage time, momentum was on our side in extra time. I had the feeling we could’ve turned the match in our favour.” Marco Richter: “We deservedly equalised very late on in normal time and this makes it even more disappointing that we went on to lose in extra time. We wanted to show a different side to our game after the defeat in Nürnberg. We were able to demonstrate this tonight. However, we sadly haven’t earned anything to show for this improved performance. We now need to put this disappointment behind us and start to prepare to face Hoffenheim on Sunday.” Alfred Finnbogason: “We invested an incredible amount of effort into tonight’s match and it is so disappointing to be eliminated. Mistakes can easily occur so we there don’t blame Michael for anything tonight. We did a lot of things right tonight and we can carry these things into our remaining matches this season.” Manuel Baum: “It is incredibly disappointing to be eliminated in this way. After 15-20 minutes, we came into the match well and were the stronger team. Additionally, we were the stronger side in extra time and would’ve deserved to have progressed to the semi-finals based on the entire match. Nevertheless, it was a good performance against good opponents. We will console Michael Gregoritsch together as a team and restore his confidence. Something like that can easily happen but I’m disregarding it as a mistake made in the heat of the moment.” Ralf Rangnick: “It was the tough cup match we expected it to be. Of course we would’ve liked to have progressed in normal time. The key to success was how we didn’t crumble after conceding the late equaliser in the 94th minute. I’m proud of my team and we now want to reach the final.”