“Extremely frustrating” | OneFootball

Markus Krösche, Dino Toppmöller and Sebastian Rode on the lessons learned from the first leg against Union Saint-Gilloise and the return fixture in Frankfurt.

Board member for sport Markus Krösche: “That shouldn’t have happened. We started really well, created a lot of chances and had some good moments in transition. Union got into the game after we made a simple mistake, and after that they did well and pressed us a lot. We invited them onto us and made life difficult for ourselves. We should have continued getting behind their defence to get into our rhythm. We didn’t do that, which is extremely frustrating.”

Head coach Dino Toppmöller: “We started the game very well, were aggressive right from the first minute and we showed the kind of reaction that we set out to show. We made too many simple errors, especially in the middle of the park, which played into the opposition’s hands. Nevertheless, we’re still in a promising position ahead of the return leg, especially as we’ll be playing at home. I’d also like to say a big thank you to our fans for their fantastic support in Anderlecht. It was really good and it helped us a lot.”

Sebastian Rode: “Given the way the match panned out, it’s frustrating that we’re not returning to Frankfurt in an even better position. We had everything under control in the first half and went 2-0 up early on, which makes the way we played in the second half all the more frustrating. We didn’t manage to play our game anymore. At home in front of a full house we want to give everything we’ve got and we’ll win it.”