“Equaliser was the crux of the matter”

„Ulm played a very good game today and never lost organisation. We had one or two possessions in the opening phase, but after that we were too sloppy. Then Fraser made it 1-0. Then came the decisive five minutes of the game: we can’t concede the goal. That shouldn’t happen to us and it’s annoying. Nevertheless, we worked intensively against the ball throughout the 90 minutes. We managed to play patiently and sometimes quickly with a good structure – unfortunately not often enough to create even more scoring opportunities. Then I found Thiede’s save against Förster unbelievable. There was also a very controversial handball decision in the penalty area. It was a very difficult task against an extremely well-organised opponent.”

… about the Lilien-Fans:

“I have to totally praise our fans. It wasn’t an easy game for them either and they needed a lot of patience. Until the last second, everyone was there and had our backs. I am sure that we will pull such games together in our direction in the future.”

“We are happy with the point. We were able to reward ourselves for a lot of hard work against a very good team. The opponent has a lot of quality with the dominant way he showed today. We were challenged a lot defensively. Before the score was 0-1, we carelessly gave the ball away in the build-up to the game and conceded the goal with the first chance. It was then important that we had the answer ready straight away. That was the decisive factor for us today, making it 1-1. After that we had to defend a lot, which we did in a very disciplined manner for 90 minutes. We didn’t give Darmstadt the really important rooms. In the second half we had dangerous transitions, but we weren’t able to make more of them. Overall, we defended very well and are happy to take a point after a great fight.”

„Of course we wanted to start the English week with a win. That’s how we approached the game and this intention could also be seen in the way we played. The sticking point was the equaliser, which we conceded far too quickly after taking the lead. After that it was a game that the Ulm team liked. They were deep, we had to be patient, but we weren’t allowed to let anything go at the back. That’s why it was a complicated game for us. I have to say, we might have lost a game like this a few weeks ago. Ulm defended incredibly well, they conceded few goals and we knew it would be a game of patience. We played it maturely, which is also a step forward, if we had gotten wild, we might have been talking about a 2-1 defeat.“

Regarding the possible hand penalty:
„The ball would have hit the goal, for me the situation was comparable to the scene from the Germany game against Spain. For me it is a clear penalty and therefore a wrong decision.“

„Of course we had hoped for more. Nevertheless, our match plan worked to a large extent, we played dominant football. Of course, with so much possession of the ball you always have to be highly concentrated, otherwise small mistakes will happen. Ulm was very compact in the crowd, we had a little We were lacking the final punch. We could have been more determined to go after the goal, especially after Ulm lost the ball. In principle, a point is always better than a defeat.“