Hecking irked by misfiring Wolfsburg's "sloppy" attacking play against Paderborn
| Photo: Selim Sudheimer/Getty Images. |
Head coach Dieter Hecking was left to rue VfL Wolfsburg's inaccuracies in attack after their 0-0 relegation play-off first-leg tie with SC Paderborn tonight.
“We have to blame ourselves for being too sloppy in the final third,” the 61-year-old said in his post-match interview, bemoaning their early missed chances.
“Sometimes the final pass that was lacking, other times it was a technical mistake. In the end we had a few decent half-chances, even though they could have turned into much more," he added.
However, the coach of the Lower-Saxony side battling the drop made sure to credit their opponents and his own team – in particular, both sides' strong rearguard displays.
"We didn’t manage that [to score a goal] because Paderborn also defended better than they had in their recent 2. Bundesliga matches.
"They didn’t open up the spaces in the same way. Of course, we also had the bit of luck you need in a relegation play-off that the ball didn’t end up going in.
"Apart from that, though, we defended everything very well, were extremely disciplined and didn’t allow ourselves to get drawn out.
"I said before the match that these would be two very tight games. So for me, none of this came as a surprise,” Hecking concluded.
