Darmstadt 98 had imagined the start of the season in the 2nd division quite differently. In Regensburg, outnumbered, it means a defeat. The coach is not dissatisfied with the performance.
Regensburg (dpa/lhe) - Coach Torsten Lieberknecht found words of praise at Jahn Regensburg despite the 0:2 defeat of SV Darmstadt 98 at the start. "It's not always the better team that wins, today it was the luckier one. We certainly didn't deserve to come off the pitch as losers. I have a lot of respect for the team because they tried everything they could to defend themselves against defeat to lift," said Lieberknecht after the botched start of the season in Hesse in the 2nd Bundesliga. "The result is annoying, but not the appearance of the team."
In front of 8,509 spectators on Saturday, the Lilien fell behind after just 17 seconds through Joshua Mees and had to play outnumbered for almost an hour after defender Patric Pfeiffer received a yellow-red card. "I don't think you can start a game worse, that's not how you imagined it, of course. But we still held out with one man less and showed over 90 minutes that we want to and throw everything in," said captain Fabian Holland.
The trainer's analysis was similar. "It was an unfortunate start, but we still had control of the game from the 20th minute and had good shots, even if we lacked the last precision in the end. After the yellow-red card, the team showed impressively that we accept the situation said Lieberknecht.
Despite a few good opportunities, the ball just didn't want to go into the opposing goal. The hosts were more effective and scored three points after Andreas Albers' second goal (67'). "The way the result came about today is just crazy," Holland quarreled. And goalkeeper Marcel Schuhen demanded: "Football is always about learning things and being clever. We have to do better in the future."
