Thorup: “A deserved three points!”

Match reaction to the 2-1 victory over Freiburg

Despite trailing 1-0 at half time, FC Augsburg turned things around in the second half to pick up three important points against SC Freiburg. Here is the match reaction to the 2-1 win.

Kevin Mbabu: “We showed an awesome team mentality and always believed in ourselves. We may have been dealt an early blow with their opening goal, but then we showed a good reaction. We can be proud of our performance, and the substitutes did a super job, too. After this weekend’s results, it’s an important victory, and from tomorrow we’ll turn our attention towards our next important fixture in Darmstadt.”

Arne Engels: “Congrats to the entire team, because they played great today. Even after we went behind, we knew we had the strength to turn the game around. I’m really pleased with my goal, I’ve practiced similar situations to that in training, and today I was able to do it in a game. Our display needs to be this dominant when we go to Darmstadt.”

Phillip Tietz: “We’re thrilled to have won this home fixture. I think we started well before they got a penalty out of nowhere. Although we were then a bit asleep for the next ten or 15 minutes after that, we showed a completely different side to ourselves in the second half. We kept our focus and kept pushing forward, but also played it backwards at the right times. We always felt that we could turn it around, and it was definitely a deserved victory!”

Felix Uduokhai: “I always had a feeling that we’d score. Once we’d got the equaliser, I was sure we’d go on to win it. We were dominant, good on the ball and had several chances. What pleases me the most, though, is that we kept patient the entire time. We didn’t let it unsettle us when they took the lead, and overall, it was a very mature performance. We want to take this momentum with us, and we’ll need it next week against Darmstadt, because the game there will be anything but easy.”

Ermedin Demirović: “Today, it was simply a matter of time until we turned the game around. We were the better team in large parts of the game and had control of the match, even when we went behind. The team didn’t give up, we kept our foot on the gas and noticed we were getting closer and closer with every pass and every cross. We always try to play with a smile on our face, and we were able to show that once again today. We absolutely wanted to win, so to have done that is a great feeling. We’re going into next week’s match in Darmstadt with our heads held high. It’s a bit of a lion’s den there, but we’ll take today’s positive feeling with us.”

Jess Thorup (FC Augsburg head coach): “That was exactly the reaction to the Mainz game that I had hoped for. We’d spoken a lot about mindset and mentality, and I saw a team that controlled the game from the first minute and looked to get forward, and the statistics show that as well. Unfortunately, we went 1-0 down again, but we showed good character and morale to pick up a deserved three points. The substitutes also made a decisive difference today.”

Lars Voßler (SC Freiburg assistant coach): “Congratulations to Augsburg on a deserved win. We had an intense couple of weeks with the Europa League play-offs, and also prepared well for today’s game. We knew exactly what to expect and were lucky to go ahead. Augsburg were hungry and stayed sharp until the final whistle. They created lots of chances and deservedly won, whilst our batteries were running on empty.”