Herrlich: "It was a bitter feeling to concede the equaliser"
Views on the draw against Leverkusen
First Team
21.02.2021, 16:50
After leading for most of the game, FC Augsburg again failed to beat Bayer 04 Leverkusen in the league as Edmond Tapsoba scored a late leveller in the last few seconds at the WWK ARENA. While the 1-1 draw was enough for Peter Bosz, for Heiko Herrlich and his team it felt like two points dropped and not one point gained. Here’s the reaction to Sunday afternoon’s game against the ‘Werkself’.
Mads Pedersen: “My heart is breaking. This one hurts. We fought so well and deserved the three points because of that. We had to maintain our focus until the last second but unfortunately, we let it slip ten seconds too early. Nevertheless, we can build on this performance.”
Felix Uduokhai: “It's a bitter, bitter feeling when you get the win snatched away with the last kick of the game. We defended really well and also showed a lot of quality up front as well. We only let ourselves get pushed back at the end. When you look at how we performed as a team though, I think we can be confident that we'll get all of the points that we need this season.”
Rani Khedira: “We defended well over 90 minutes and showed our strengths while looking for a way forward. We showed what we are capable of and if we continue to approach games with this mentality as we did today, we'll get our reward.”
Florian Niederlechner: “A 1-1 draw to a top team like Leverkusen looks great on the surface but when it comes as a result of a last minute equaliser, it's a bitter feeling. I thought we were very committed and played well though and we can take a lot from this game into our next few matches. I think everyone could see that we wanted to play good football and we did that. Overall, it was a big step forwards, but it would have been nice to get all three points.”
Heiko Herrlich: “I watched a very good, fighting performance from my team today against a top side. We took the lead early and created more chances after that. We didn't allow them many opportunities and always looked to push forwards. In the second half, we could have made better use of our counter attacks to close out the game. It was a bitter feeling to concede the equaliser two seconds before the end of the game and the draw feels more like a defeat right now. Nevertheless, we can take a lot from this game and if we continue to perform like this, we will win matches.”
Peter Bosz: “We came here to win the game and although we didn't manage to do that, we scored the late equaliser because the players never stopped believing and showed total commitment. We gifted them their goal but we controlled the game in the first half and had lots of possession. In the second half, we had to take more risks but that makes it even sweeter that we managed to strike late on.”
