Dahmen: “The first half was a disaster”

Reaction to Saturday’s 3-0 loss in Leipzig

There wasn’t much for the FC Augsburg camp to be happy with following their 3-0 defeat in Leipzig on Saturday afternoon, particularly in the first half. We heard the reaction from the players and coaches.

Maximilian Bauer: “We were more or less absent in the first half. Leipzig scored three goals from three chances that we defended poorly. We can’t come out and perform like that. We were more solid in the second half, but the performance was nowhere near good enough on the whole.”

Ermedin Demirović: “It’s a painful one because we had a good game plan, but then we slept through the whole first half. We showed a different side after the break and have to take the positives from that if we want to pick up points again at home against Mainz. We just didn’t play well at all in the first half and allowed Leipzig to show their quality.”

Elvis Rexhbecaj: “We made life far too easy for Leipzig. The way we conceded the goals is unacceptable. We knew how dangerous they are on the counter, but we didn’t have an answer to it in the first half because we made too many mistakes. We ought to have done more with the chances we created and been more efficient with our attacks.”

Finn Dahmen: “The first half was a disaster to be honest. We conceded soft goals and didn’t defend well as a team. I don’t think that it’s down to our playing system, but we just need to defend better as a group. We improved a little in the second half, but it’s no use playing one good half of football in the Bundesliga. That’s not how you pick up points. There’s a lot that we will have to analyse and our goal has to be to get a win against Mainz.”

Enrico Maaßen: “We had a chance to go 1-0 up through Dion Beljo, but then we went 3-0 down through goals that shouldn’t be happening. I don’t want to speak to much about our poor first-half performance – we will discuss that internally. I felt like we had good week of training, but expectation and reality were very different things in a number of positions in the first half. We had chances to get back into the game after the break, but you have to take them for that to happen.”

RB Leipzig head coach Marco Rose: “We had a very good first half. After Augsburg’s first chance, we were very dominant and scored some nice goals. Loïs Openda even had the chance to make it four. Augsburg went all-in in the second half, which meant that we had to work a lot harder off the ball. However, our work rate on the ball dropped off; we weren’t active enough and didn’t have enough movement. That saw us lose control over proceedings and allowed Augsburg to have two clear-cut chances.”