Head coach Oliver Glasner: “Union were well organised and made life incredibly difficult for us. It shouldn’t be an excuse but we’ve played a lot of matches in recent weeks. I can’t blame the players for lacking freshness. We really felt the tiredness when we went 1-0 down. The defeat is deserved, which we just have to accept. As a team we didn’t produce the performance required to win here. The boys tried to come back, and I give them credit for that. I can’t sing their praises on Thursday and then bash them today. They don’t deserve that and I understand why they didn’t have enough in the legs today after so many matches in the last few weeks.”
Christopher Lenz: “We weren’t really able to create any clear chances. Union were incredibly compact and tried to counter dangerously. The rotation can’t be an excuse. We saw in Barcelona that everyone who’s on the bench is also ready – like Almamy Toure, who hadn’t played for a long time and then put in an outstanding performance.”
We wanted to do everything possible, which we did, but in the end it wasn’t enough.
Jens Grahl
Jens Grahl: “Obviously I’d prefer to be going home with a win. The team fought until the end. It was a special feeling to be back in goal after such a long time. The performance and the effort from Thursday came into it because we’d been on the pitch for over 100 minutes. It was extremely intense and emotional, even after the match with the fans. We wanted to do everything possible, which we did, but in the end it wasn’t enough.”
