Nübel and Hoeneß reflect on rout: "A brutal evening."
In his post-match interview with German broadcaster DAZN last night, VfB Stuttgart keeper Alexander Nübel took a look at the replay of the decisive moment in his team's 1-5 loss to Leipzig and conceded that he might have done better.
Head-coach Sebastian Hoeneß used the same word as his keeper in his own post-match comments.
Having a look at the crucial scene that ended up sparking his side's rout last night, VfB Stuttgart keeper Alexander Nübel attempted to explain the reasoning behind his failure to see an onrushing Benjamin Henrichs on a play that ended up gifting RB Leipzig an equalizer out of nowhere. The 26-year-old told the DAZN microphones that he had been hoping to spark a counter rather than a rout.
Head-coach Sebastian Hoeneß used the same word as his keeper in his own post-match comments.
"I wanted to keep the game moving and play forward to Serhou [Guirassy]," Nübel said, "He [Henrichs] went all-in and I shot the ball off him. Naturally, it's brutally unlucky that the ball ricocheted off him and into the net. In the final analysis, I have to say that if I just played out or simply conceded a corner then nothing would have happened. It hurts."
"That unsteadied us," the Bayern loanee continued, "And its very bitter to lose 1-5. That really hurts. That was a brutal game; a brutal evening. We played really well during the first half and then frittered it away at the back. We didn't play well out of the back, didn't get into the duels, then conceded that unfortunate equalizer."
New VfB squad captain Waldemar Anton and head-coach Sebastian Hoeneß echoed similar sentiments. Both Anton and Hoeneß praised the team's performance in the opening 45 before acknowledging that a team as stacked as Leipzig can quickly unleash harsh punishment when given an opening.
"It's brutal what Leipzig are capable of furnishing," Hoeneß told his interviewer, "That was really crass. We couldn't stop that today. You could see that even against a good opponent we are able to make pinpricks and hit them. But, after the second half, you also have to acknowledge that we still have a lot to learn. In the end, those are two things I already knew."