Discontent at 1. FC Magdeburg: “Not a good performance”

Coach Petrik Sander didn't even try to make excuses. “We deserved to lose,” said the 1. FC Magdeburg coach after the 0–2 defeat at Dynamo Dresden. For 85 of the 95 minutes, his team was the inferior side, lacking much of what had distinguished them in recent weeks.

For instance, Magdeburg ran ten kilometers less than their opponents. Sander was also annoyed by his players’ criticism of the referees. Tobias Müller complained that the video assistant referee had made the wrong call before the penalty kick that led to the 0–1 score. Sander countered: “There are no two ways about that situation: It was a clear foul.”

Müller, the otherwise strong defender, also offered some self-criticism: “We weren’t clear enough in our movements and positioning. It was a day when we made quite a few wrong decisions.”

Reimann Criticizes Lack of Threat

Captain and goalkeeper Dominik Reimann, who was powerless to stop both Niklas Hauptmann’s precisely converted penalty kick (9th minute) and the 0–2 goal—Simon Straudi’s first professional goal (50th minute), summed it up: “We weren’t dangerous enough and ultimately just couldn’t find the space to turn the match around. Bottom line, it wasn’t a good performance on our part.”

In fact, Magdeburg was a far cry from the threat they’d posed in recent games. The two big chances by Mateusz Zukowski after 19 seconds and Emmanuel Iyoha (4th minute) were followed only shortly before the end by another top-notch opportunity from Baris Atik. It wasn’t enough to pose any serious problems for Dynamo’s defense, which played well that day. “We missed a huge opportunity,” said Sander. Instead of moving up to third place in the standings, FCM slipped to sixth.