Eintracht Frankfirt’s wait for a first title since 1988 goes on after their 2-1 loss to Borussia Dortmund in last night’s DFB-Pokal final. Head coach Niko Kovac gave his thoughts on the game, the crucial moments and offered somewhat of a season summary to DFB in wake of last night’s game.
DFB: Mr Kovac, how disappointed are you after the game?
Niko Kovac: You are always going to be disappointed to lose a final. That’s obvious. But I’m just really proud because of the way my players stayed with Dortmund for all of the 90 minutes. They had to dig really really deep. We could even have taken the lead with a bit more luck, but that’s football. We will return home with our heads held high.
DFB: Did the better team win, or the luckier?
Kovac: Definitely the better. We did not wake up until the 15th minute and went missing in that period. Perhaps the atmosphere had a little bit of an effect on us. We dominated the last 30 minutes of the first half. But all in all, you have to say they deserved it over the course of the 90 minutes. We can have no complaints with the penalty.
DFB: How do you rate your season as a whole?
Kovac: Overall our year was pretty good. We ended it well with the performance in the final and now we’ll try to get even better next year.
DFB: How long will it take for the disappointment to go away?
Kovac: You have to give the boys a bit of time to get over this. Of course they are going to be sad for a few days but that is natural. But they must also learn from this situation. What did they learn? What can they take with them? BVB were clever, and we lacked that. If we can use that in our game more we will get better. There are positives to find in negatives and negatives to find in positives. I think it will help the boys to give everything in training from now, because they will want to experience what they had last night again.
DFB: What did you make of the penalty decision?
Kovac: Small details settle big games. I will not make an example of Lukas (Hradecky). The mistake came earlier on in the move. If a keeper comes out then the striker is always going to be looking for the contact, and that’s what he got on this occasion. At the end of the day it was a foul.
[sid]
Eintracht Frankfirt’s wait for a first title since 1988 goes on after their 2-1 loss to Borussia Dortmund in last night’s DFB-Pokal final. Head coach Niko Kovac gave his thoughts on the game, the crucial moments and offered somewhat of a season summary to DFB in wake of last night’s game.
DFB: Mr Kovac, how disappointed are you after the game?
Niko Kovac: You are always going to be disappointed to lose a final. That’s obvious. But I’m just really proud because of the way my players stayed with Dortmund for all of the 90 minutes. They had to dig really really deep. We could even have taken the lead with a bit more luck, but that’s football. We will return home with our heads held high.
DFB: Did the better team win, or the luckier?
Kovac: Definitely the better. We did not wake up until the 15th minute and went missing in that period. Perhaps the atmosphere had a little bit of an effect on us. We dominated the last 30 minutes of the first half. But all in all, you have to say they deserved it over the course of the 90 minutes. We can have no complaints with the penalty.
DFB: How do you rate your season as a whole?
Kovac: Overall our year was pretty good. We ended it well with the performance in the final and now we’ll try to get even better next year.
DFB: How long will it take for the disappointment to go away?
Kovac: You have to give the boys a bit of time to get over this. Of course they are going to be sad for a few days but that is natural. But they must also learn from this situation. What did they learn? What can they take with them? BVB were clever, and we lacked that. If we can use that in our game more we will get better. There are positives to find in negatives and negatives to find in positives. I think it will help the boys to give everything in training from now, because they will want to experience what they had last night again.
DFB: What did you make of the penalty decision?
Kovac: Small details settle big games. I will not make an example of Lukas (Hradecky). The mistake came earlier on in the move. If a keeper comes out then the striker is always going to be looking for the contact, and that’s what he got on this occasion. At the end of the day it was a foul.
