Weinzierl: “Defended with a lot of passion and spirit”
Post-match reach to the 2-1 win against Mainz
First Team
06.04.2022, 21:51
FC Augsburg have opened up a six-point gap over the relegation zone, following their 2-1 home win against 1. FSV Mainz 05. “Our hard work was rewarded with three important points,” said a joyous Markus Weinzierl after the match. Read on for all the post-match reaction from both sides.
Florian Niederlechner: “I slid in to win the ball and then thought he’d made contact with me during the challenge. Looking at it now, I have to admit that it wasn’t a penalty, although it also wasn’t a dive. Overall, tonight was a huge step for us, and it feels really good. Mainz played really well, but we withstood the pressure, which is what you need to do in a relegation battle. I’m extremely proud of the lads.”
Jeffrey Gouweleeuw: “We stuck together as a team. We knew that Mainz would be very robust and physical, and that we would need to be up for the challenge. It will be a completely different game against Bayern, but we will be able to take confidence from tonight’s result with us to Munich, and we’ll see what happens then.”
Ruben Vargas: “We had high expectations for ourselves and knew that it wouldn’t be easy. In the end, it’s a very important win for us. I think I scored the winning goal with my second touch tonight. After Sunday’s game, it was another important step and we now want to continue on in this manner. We aren’t in the clear just yet.”
Mads Pedersen: “Tonight was great! I’m very happy for Ruben, and that he scored the winner. He has been playing at a high level all season, but he’s been missing that little bit of luck recently. There’s no question that this is an important win. Without our fans, neither of these two wins would have been possible.”
Markus Weinzierl: “We saw a strong Mainz team tonight that pushed us hard, played with a lot of intensity and that always looked dangerous. That caused us some issues, especially in the second half. After the equaliser, the game could have gone either way, but then we retook the lead through Ruben Vargas and I was very happy to see him score. We defended with a lot of passion and spirit but were also a bit lucky and had a great goalkeeper. In the end, our hard work was rewarded with three important points.”
Bo Svensson: “We weren’t ready for the game tonight and didn’t look good, especially in the first half. We came out strong at the start of the second half and scored a nice goal. Overall, we played well in the second half but didn’t defend well on several set pieces, one of which they then scored on. That’s why we unfortunately lost.”
