Martin Schmidt was certainly the happier of the two coaches after Sunday’s goalless draw at the Volkswagen Arena. While the visiting tactician talked about “an important, spirited point,” VfL boss Oliver Glasner stated that the strain of the midweek UEFA Europa League match at Gent had taken its toll – particularly mentally – on his players.
Oliver Glasner: “At the end of the day we have to make do with the point, even if our aim was for more. We also have to be honest with ourselves that today’s performance wasn’t necessarily good enough for a win. We struggled a lot in the first half. We were lacking mental freshness today and were a bit slow in terms of our speed of though. You could see that in the second balls and our decision-making. The first touch was often backwards rather than looking forwards. In the second half, we put a bit more pressure on in attack without creating big chances in open play. We were lacking that final precision. With the goal chalked off, the 0-0 draw was fair, and Augsburg also deserved it for their hard work and commitment. Our performance wasn’t one that would force a win.”
Martin Schmidt: “As coach I can be very happy with the 0-0 draw. We were brave and wanted to go for the win here, as our formation showed. Then it was important that we stayed solid and kept the opposition away from goal, which we did very well. We’ve now picked up two important points against Bayern and Wolfsburg, two of the top teams in the league. Although it’s not moved us up, these are points to get us out of where we are the moment. They’re points that are good for morale, which we’ll happily take.”
