FC St. Pauli

Head coach Alexander Blessin: "We were looking for a different performance here and knew Augsburg weren't exactly brimming with confidence going into the game. We wanted to be much more aggressive going about our business, but we passed the ball backwards far too much in the first half. We were sluggish and slow in our actions and that invited Augsburg to press us. We made no deep runs and lost our attacking intent. We made Augsburg strong but went in level at the break. We made a change to introduce more pace but conceded straight after the restart, though for me there was a clear foul beforehand. We had to brush ourselves down and gradually increased our grip on the proceedings and created some pressure. We didn't give up after going two down and pulled a goal back. We were very good in that phase and were closer to an equaliser than Augsburg to a third goal. At the end we got caught on the break when we threw everyone forward one more time. What we take from the game is that we don't want to play the way we did in the first half. In the second half there were lots of positives. We go home empty-handed and are obviously disappointed. We want to play with more courage at home against Leipzig."

Carlo Boukhalfa: "The performance in the first half wasn't good. We played the ball backwards way too often and maybe we lacked courage. We should have hit more balls in behind the defence, which was the plan. We defended well and kept a clean sheet but conceded needlessly after the break. We came back and our energy was good. We had chances but didn't take them and eventually conceded again right at the end. It's incredibly frustrating. We have to keep going flat out. There's no point in letting our heads drop. We have a functioning team and won't fall apart. The points will come. I can't be happy about scoring my first Bundesliga goal, it's more a sense of frustration at the moment."

Elias Saad: "We threw everything at it after going two down. We pulled together as a team and knew we had nothing to lose. We got back into it and had some chances where with a bit of luck we could have equalised. It's our third defeat in a row. That's hard. We'll keep our belief, though, and keep giving our all to win our first game, hopefully soon."

Jess Thorup (FC Augsburg head coach): "I saw a good reaction from my team compared with our last game. The first half was decent and I felt we controlled the game. We had some chances and a goal was the only thing missing. At half-time I told the team they should keep playing the same way because then the chances would come. We went two up and then I had a slight feeling that the players were scared of losing something. I made some attacking changes to signal to the team that we should go forward instead of trying to manage the scoreline. Then it got hectic and Nedo produced another superb save. We had three or four golden opportunities but unfortunately didn't take any of them until Yusuf scored, which was really important. We're all delighted with the three points."

Photos: Witters/FC St. Pauli