Ginter: “We have to be satisfied with the point”

Following the 2-2 draw against SC Freiburg, Matthias Ginter faced the media on Sunday. The central defender discussed the Foals’ performance, goals conceded from set-pieces, and the busy schedule.

Matthias Ginter on…

…the Foals’ performance in Freiburg: We have to be satisfied with the point. We weren’t bad going forwards but we could have been better in the final third. Patrick Herrmann gave us the opportunity to win right at the end, but overall I’d say that Freiburg had the clearer chances on balance. They played very well.

…SC Freiburg: It’s always difficult to play away to Freiburg, but home games are also hard against them. They fight for everything and never give up, and they have a lot of quality in their squad. That’s why they’ve been in the Bundesliga for as long as they have been.

…goals conceded from set-pieces: Freiburg are very good at set-pieces and you saw that yesterday as they scored twice from them. We need to be better at defending against that. I think that we’ve got a bit of a problem with this in general at the moment. Unfortunately this season, we’ve often lost focus and switched off at the key moments on set-pieces. As a result of that, we’ve conceded too many soft goals and that needs to stop.

… Christof Kramer as a defensive partner: This was his first time playing in central defence I think. Freiburg played a lot of long balls over the top and they were whipping in dangerous balls, but Chris did a good job. We know now that we’ve got another option in central defence, should we need it.

…the current busy schedule: I think it’s normal that standards can slip a little when you’re playing as many games as we are at this time of the year, especially with the European games. But that shouldn’t be an excuse. We have a big squad, and the boys who played did a good job. But of course we were lacking a little bit of freshness going into the game.

…returning to Freiburg, where he made his breakthrough: It’s always something special for me to come back to Freiburg and to play in the stadium that I watched so many games in as a child. My parents always took me to games growing up, we had season tickets. It was a bit sad for me though knowing that this was my last game in the stadium. But from Freiburg’s point of view, their new stadium is something special.