After the 1-1 draw away to FC Augsburg, Sebastian Kehl, Julian Brandt, Niclas Füllkrug, Nico Schlotterbeck and Gregor Kobel gave their take on an eventful 90 minutes. The match reactions.
Sebastian Kehl (in the mixed zone): “We’re angry and disappointed that we dropped two points. The clear plan was to take six points from the final two matches. We must not lose sight of our minimum objective, reaching the Champions League. Our record in the Bundesliga in recent weeks has not been good. We have a different standard. The team threw themselves into it today. We did not finish off our chances with enough precision.”
Julian Brandt (in the mixed zone): “It was a lively game today and I believe that this style suits our team better too. But we’re not scoring enough goals compared to the top four teams. More goals would do us good. And when you score goals up top, it’s also easier to defend at the back. Conceding goals continues to be an issue for us.”
Niclas Füllkrug (in the mixed zone): “It’s down to us to finish off our chances better. But I also think that we performed very decently on this pitch. It was not short of goalscoring chances and the shots weren’t bad either. There was always a reason why the ball ultimately then didn’t go in. It’s definitely not how we need to perform in order to achieve our objectives. The Augsburg central defenders would have appealed for a foul if it had been the other way around. Nobody would have complained if the goal hadn’t been given. In my opinion, Schlotti was very much ahead in this duel, was very clearly the first player to the ball and Demirovic had no chance of getting the ball other than by committing a foul, or Schlotti fell over by himself out of nothing. But that didn’t happen.”
Nico Schlotterbeck (to Sky): “We had a lot of chances in the second half but squandered them. Then you have to live with the 1-1. The goal is an individual error from me. He pushes me, then I try to keep running but make a footwork error. But if the referee saw it that way, then it’s not a foul. Then I have to accept it. Otherwise, we didn’t actually give away that much.”
Gregor Kobel (in the mixed zone): “The gap to the Champions League places is getting increasingly bigger. We have to catch up as quickly as possible; first of all, we all have to gather our strength for the game against Mainz, recharge our batteries over Christmas and then start a run.”