Baum: “A match you simply cannot lose”

FC Augsburg have fallen to a disappointing, late 2-1 defeat at home to Fortuna Düsseldorf in their opening Bundesliga match of 2019. FCA head coach Manuel Baum was visibly disappointed after the match. “We lost a match which you simply cannot lose.” Here is the post match reaction. Alfred Finnbogason: “A similar story has happened over multiple matches so far this season. We have dominated matches but have nothing to show for it. When we were in control of today’s match, we simply didn’t create enough chances to score. It is very disappointing to concede on the counter just before half-time. We were also dominant in the second half but didn’t do enough with our possession. That was very disappointing.” André Hahn: “Early in the match, we allowed ourselves to be pressed back into our own half. In the second half, we wanted to put things right and equalise. We simply shouldn’t have allowed Düsseldorf to counter so close to the end of the match. That is very frustrating and disappointing.” Daniel Baier: “It is such a shame to lose a match like this. Overall, we played relatively well and I should’ve opened the scoring earlier on (hit the post in the 13th minute). However, we fell behind just before half-time. We showed a lot of morale to get back in the match. However, when you concede a goal so late on, you have to ask yourself if we did everything as well as we possibly could’ve done. We simply shouldn’t have conceded like that so late on. We will work hard over the next few weeks to turn matches back in our favour.” Gregor Kobel, who made his FCA debut: “I am pleased to have been given the faith by the coaching team to play. However, I am obviously unhappy with the result. I didn’t really have too much to do over the course of the match, yet we lost. We might have been resting on our laurels too much at 1-1 and we gave them too much room to play in the closing stages. We simply cannot allow that to happen.” Manuel Baum: “We started the match well and were unfortunate not to take the lead as Daniel Baier hit the post. We were also unfortunate to concede just before half-time. There were a series of mistakes we made. After half-time, we played better and equalised through a superb Johnny Schmid free-kick. Once again, we made mistakes in the 89th minute and were punished for it. We lost a match which you simply cannot lose.” Fortuna Düsseldorf head coach Friedhelm Funkel: “We are very relieved to have won today. We didn’t start the match very well at all. We didn’t even create a chance until the 27th minute.  We took the lead just before the interval, which came at exactly the right time for us.  We didn’t start the second half very well either and conceded. We also noticed that Augsburg were struggling to create any chances after equalising. Consequently, we chose to make some attacking changes in search of the victory. We are pleased to have sealed the victory late on and this will give us further confidence for the forthcoming weeks.”