Following a massive 2-1 win over Borussia Mönchengladbach, Augsburg ended the Hinrunde with a real chance of troubling the European places. Markus Weinzierl, Lucien Favre, Jan-Ingwer Callsen-Bracker and Yann Sommer gave their thoughts after the Saturday afternoon clash.

Augsburg coach Markus Weinzierl said the penalty surprised them all, "The game began with a shock for us as we conceded the spot kick after all of a minute and it didn’t make life easy." Though he commented on the turnaround and the season in general, "But the boys reacted well from going behind so early, that was really strong of them. We were the better team over the 90 minutes in my opinion and therefore deservedly won. We really imposed ourselves on the game and I can only send my compliments to the team. 27 points in the first half of the season is a sensational haul for FC Augsburg."

Jan-Ingwer Callsen-Bracker gave away that early penalty, but he was proud of how his team reacted, "We knew that Gladbach would be a difficult opponent, but we didn't let ourselves get shocked by the goal, but instead we were more motivated by it. We were dominant, we made the ball do all the running and we have defended courageously. We have been rewarded."

Lucien Favre thought that the early goal could been a false dawn, "Perhaps the early lead was too much of a relief for the team and we thought that the game was already going in our favour." However, he conceded that Augsburg played well, "We didn’t defend well after that though and gave them too much space on the wings. But we also played a very good team. If you’re not prepared to defend well against them then you can’t win."

"We began the second half a bit better but quickly conceded the second. We lost out direction a bit with this goal. We then tried everything in search of an equaliser and pressed them with lots of risks. It wasn’t a bad performance but we lacked that killer instinct."

Yann Sommer expressed his annoyance, after failing to capitalise on fellow European-chasing sides dropped points, "It’s a real shame that we lost as almost all the teams around us dripped points and we could have got ourselves from breathing space with a win. Augsburg were really clever though and often had the man over on both flanks. It was no coincidence that both their goals came from the cross on the wing. We then had two or three chances after going behind but we just couldn’t put the ball in the back of the net again.

Quotes via borussia.de and fcaugsburg.de