#FCUBMG: Match reaction

After the Foals 3-1 defeat at Union Berlin, we have the reactions of Julian Weigl, Christoph Kramer, sporting director Nils Schmadtke and the two head coaches Gerardo Seoane and Nenad Bjelica.

Julian Weigl: We didn’t start the game well. Union were always a step ahead of us and won a lot of second balls. We didn’t manage to put together any dangerous attacks of our own. Being only 1-0 down at half time flattered us, because FCU had quite a few more attacking moves. We then conceded the second from a corner just after the break. After that, we tried everything. You can’t deny our effort, but at the end of the day, Union deserved to win the game. It’s frustrating for us. If we’d all been at 100 percent, we definitely could have taken something here.

Christoph Kramer: We can’t accept the defeat, because we just didn’t do well enough. We didn’t show any composure and had the ball in our own half too often. That definitely hurt us the most. We got the ball into Union’s half far too rarely, and when we did manage it, it usually came back at us very quickly. Even before the first goal, I didn’t feel like we were staying compact and looking secure in defence. That’s very disappointing after the good run we’ve been on. The fans’ reaction after the game is not to be taken for granted. It’s the only thing that I’m happy about. That does us good and gives us new impetus for the last two games.

Sporting director Nils Schmadtke: We’re all very disappointed, because we actually prepared really well and were hoping for far more before the game. We didn’t approach the match like we should have. Particularly in the build-up, we were far too messy. We’ll have to take a look at ourselves. We’ve always made it clear that there will be setbacks with this young team, and that’s what happened at Union Berlin today. We’ll have to work through this defeat and then return to our old strengths and our current path.

Head coach Gerardo Seoane: The result matched the performance. From the beginning, we couldn’t bring our game onto the pitch, whether with or without the ball. We’re therefore not happy with our performance. Now, we need to work on some things. We did manage to muster a lot of energy in the past few games, which is why we might have been missing some mental and physical freshness. But we can’t use that as an excuse, because if we want to play in the cup, then we need to be able to be 100 percent ready in the league too. And we weren’t this time.

Head coach Nenad Bjelica (Union Berlin): The team put in a good performance over the course of 90 minutes. We were almost perfect in a lot of areas. I want more games like this from my team in the future. We showed a great willingness to run on the day and proved that we play with a lot of heart. I think that everyone at Union Berlin was delighted with the second goal. That released a lot of frustration after the last three months and also allowed emotions to erupt. In the first half, we could have looked for even more space in behind and play more down the right-hand side, but we still managed to create chances and deserved to be ahead at the break.