Maaßen: “Didn’t deliver on the pitch”

Match reaction following Saturday’s 2-1 loss to Darmstadt

The first half in particular let FC Augsburg down in their 2-1 defeat at home to SV Darmstadt 98 on Saturday afternoon. We gathered the thoughts from the players and coaches.

Jeffrey Gouweleeuw: “The best thing about the first half was that it was still 0-0 at the end of it. We can’t allow ourselves to play like that and give Darmstadt so much possession. We didn’t get stuck into the challenges and weren’t in the game at all. The way their goals were scored was unacceptable; we were far too passive. It wasn’t until we were behind that we started to throw everything forward, which isn’t enough at the end of the day.”

Ermedin Demirović: “That wasn’t good enough. We wanted to play with intensity and put Darmstadt under pressure, but we didn’t manage it at all. We didn’t throw ourselves into challenges, we didn’t have enough shots and then when we created chances at the end, we didn’t get the goals we needed. We as a team have to implement the coach’s plan better than that – we all have to look at ourselves in the mirror. Huge respect to our fans. We didn’t put in a good performance, but they showed their support throughout and really pushed us forward at the end.”

Sven Michel: “We weren’t at the races in the first half. We were just chasing the ball around and didn’t win any second balls. We could be happy to still be level at 0-0 at the break. We had a good phase at the end of the game, but it was simply too late. We could actually have got the equaliser with a little more luck, but we wouldn’t have deserved it. It’s frustrating to end up behind in games week after week and then be left chasing. We need to cut out the mistakes. Darmstadt were physical from the get-go and got the better of us, which can’t be happening at home.”

Enrico Maaßen: “I’m incredibly disappointed in our first-half performance. That was unacceptable. We wanted to put our opponent under pressure early and play with courage, but we didn’t deliver that on the pitch at all and were just chasing our opponent. That meant that we didn’t have the energy to make something happen when we were in possession. We tried to adjust things at half time, but then we conceded two goals, albeit one from a penalty. The team showed character after that and the fans gave us their full support. Still, we weren’t able to come back and get a result, although that wouldn’t have been deserved after our first-half display.”

Darmstadt head coach Torsten Lieberknecht: “We offered up good opposition today and saw two different approaches to the game. We were good in the air and at winning second balls. However, it was important that we had good positional play and composure on the ball. That allowed us to grow in confidence and translate that into two goals. However, you can’t afford to give a Bundesliga side a sniff in a game, and the stadium really got behind them at the end. We were well positioned to deal with crosses and were able to defend them. We’re happy that we were able to get the three points over the line.”