Schmidt: “Lacking conviction in the final third”
First Team
25.01.2020, 16:32
FC Augsburg will travel home from Berlin with no points in the bag. “The set-piece goal really turned the game in their favour,” said head coach Martin Schmidt after the game. Here is all the post-match reaction.
Florian Niederlechner: “It was a really weird game. In the first half both teams just played long balls. After they scored two quick goals in the second half, we actually had a couple of great chances to get back in to it, but in the end it just didn’t come off. We can’t get down in the dumps now though, lots of teams have found it difficult here. To sum it all up: Union took their chances, we didn’t. We have to get back to work in the week now ahead of an important game against Bremen.”
Marco Richter: “We knew exactly what to expect from Berlin here, but for both goals we just didn’t defend well enough, and going forward we just didn’t cause them enough problems over the 90 minutes. We threw everything we had at them towards the end but they defended well and we couldn’t get past them. We really wanted to get the win here, but we’ll have to put this result out of our minds now and concentrate on the Bremen game next week.”
Andre Hahn: “We didn’t allow them much in the first half to be honest but then we conceded quickly after the start of the second half. After they got the second goal then it was hard for us to get back into it. We actually had a few great chances but we weren’t forceful enough in the final third. We have to start picking up points again next week against Bremen, today we just lacked a bit of luck.”
Philipp Max: “I thought we had the better of the game in the first half but then they just went in front thanks to a set piece. Then it was always going to be difficult, especially at a ground like this, to come back from 2-0 down. We can’t go quiet now though, we have to turn situations like we had today in our favour and win the game against Bremen.”
Daniel Baier: “We knew that it wouldn’t be a pretty game. We knew it would be a battle. In terms of tackles and defending it was a great game, but in terms of playing good football it really wasn’t. After we went behind we tried everything to get back in to the game and we had chances but we just didn’t take them. Our fans were great yet again though and they got behind us even when we were losing. We have to come back together now and go again against Bremen, maybe there we’ll get a bit of luck.”
Martin Schmidt: “We knew that football-wise it would be a physical game and we would have to defend well. It was clear right from the off that long balls would be the order of the day, and we were ready for that. We just lacked conviction in front of goal today. The set piece goal that they got really turned the game in their favour. After that though, we had chances to get back in to the game, but we didn’t take them so in the end we didn’t deserve to equalise.”
Urs Fischer: “I’m really happy for the guys because they gave it everything they had for the full 90 minutes. In the final 20 minutes, Augsburg really put us under pressure but we did everything we could to stop them. We played really well right from the off, we were alert, and we scored two good goals. We fought bravely to hold them and defend our goal, so I’m really happy with the result and the performance today.”
