Roger Schmidt: "We have to think about our approach"

POST-MATCH

Roger Schmidt analyzed the Real Sociedad-Benfica match (3-1), from gameweek of Group D of the Champions League, played this Wednesday, November 8, at the Reale Arena. 

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE TWO TEAMS

"First, congratulations to Real Sociedad for the win and for qualifying for the knockout stage, they deserve it. We had a terrible first half. It didn't start well, with the first goal coming from a set piece. We lost confidence and our opponents gained confidence, but that's no excuse. Today's game showed a big difference between us and them. The intensity with which they played, the compactness, the focus, the unity. I think they were better than us in all these aspects, and that's why the game was almost decided by half-time. Ultimately, the opposition showed how you can make a difference and dominate the game. We weren't able to respond today."

TECHNICAL RESPONSIBILITY

"My explanation is that we weren't prepared. When we're not ready, it's my responsibility, because I have to prepare the players in terms of tactics, game plan, motivation and everything. Looking at how we played today, I did a very bad job. We're very disappointed with this and especially with myself. We have to think about our approach, but today was a very disappointing performance as a whole."

TACTICS DIDN'T MAKE THE DIFFERENCE

"The tactical approach wasn't the reason for the defeat. It went well in the last two matches, today it was a different opponent and also one with different individual quality on the flanks. That's also why I made a change after 25 minutes [Jurásek came on for Florentino]. Florentino already had a yellow card, and we needed João Neves in the center of midfield. It wasn't the tactical approach, it was more the ability and the big difference between the opponent and us in the basics of football."

ELIMINATION FROM THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

"If you look at today's game and the other games we've played, we weren't good enough and so, of course, we're out of the Champions League. It's very disappointing. We showed that we can play at this level in a completely different way, especially last season. At the moment, we're not playing with the same concentration and focus to play our style of football."