Friedl and Schmidt after latest loss: "We clearly beat ourselves."
SV Werder Bremen captain Marco Friedl and attacker Niklas Schmidt expressed their frustration about the team's defensive lapses following Saturday's loss to Augsburg.
After playing their most impressive and complete game of the new calendar year last week, it's back to the Loss-column for SV Werder Bremen. Ole Werner's Hanseaten travelled to Bavaria's Fuggerstadt on Saturday, ultimately succumbing to a 1-2 loss against the very beatable hosts. For young squad captain Marco Friedl and attacker Niklas Schmidt - both of whom had great games last week - it was a case of self sabotage.
Friedl first expressed his disappointment with the early 0-1.
"We had problems in the first ten minutes," the annoyed captain told the Sky mics afterwards, "We knew it was going to be a wild game, that there would be a lot of long balls. We conceded a goal on just such a situation."
"Then, after being clearly better team in the opening 45 minutes," Friedl continued, "We came out inattentive at the start of the second half. Augsburg score on their only chance of the second half. We clearly beat ourselves."
Schmidt, who had to lament an missed chance to equalize after Dion Beljo's 6th-minute-opener, agreed that his own sloppy play contributed to the result. Schmidt had plenty of time on the ball following a Renato Veiga mistake in the 10th. He could have also serviced the wide open Marvin Ducksch.
"In hindsight, that one really hurts," Schmidt said of the situation, "I could have taken a few more touches and gone on for a few more meters. We just weren't vigilant enough in the decisive actions. In the second half, we didn't play enough actions cleanly."
With 30 points collected through 23 matchdays, Bremen are almost certain not to factor into the relegation race this year. The newly-promoted side can certainly be happy about that. Any and all dreams of European qualification via the Conference League playoff spot, however, can now almost assuredly be shelved after the latest result.