Alfred Johansson proud of Motherwell despite first-leg loss

Motherwell boss Alfred Johansson said he was proud of his side’s efforts in their 3-1 Europa Conference League play-off defeat against Freiburg.

But the Swede also said they did not show enough of their own identity to succeed against a side that reached the final of last season’s competition.

Motherwell made a whirlwind start, with Regan Charles-Cook sidefooting in Emmanuel Longelo’s cutback after just 73 seconds.

But Matthias Ginter headed Freiburg level on 27 minutes and netted a second from the spot, after Martin Moormann was shown a straight red card on 65 minutes via a VAR review.

Substitute Keisuke Goto added a third with a stoppage-time header, giving Motherwell a mountain to climb in Germany next Thursday.

Johansson said: “I’m very proud of them for the way that they played, the mentality that they showed throughout the game, and that we learned the hard way in conceding from defensive set-pieces.

“We spoke about that, but also the fact that we were not giving away a lot of big chances in this game from open play, being down one man from minute 60, roughly.

“We stuck to our principles, which was something that I asked for before the game.

“All of these things put together makes me very proud to be involved with them, and that’s what I said to them.”

Johansson was frustrated with the late third goal and also Moormann’s dismissal, which rules him out of next week’s game.

On the second leg, Johansson said: “We have several days to make a plan for that.

“It’s always frustrating to concede a goal and the red card is a frustration as well. Obviously you are frustrated when you concede a goal and [the red card] is frustrating, but these things they happen.

“These players are recruited and made for playing in this way that we’re playing. If you look at the first goal that we score, I think we can all agree that when Motherwell are looking their best is when we are playing exactly like that.

“To be honest, I thought in the middle part of the first half after we scored was when we were not doing that, and that was when Freiburg were gaining momentum.

“They do that because they are so good, but also because we became a little bit protective. We didn’t press as much as we did prior to our goal, and we didn’t press as much as we did at the end of the first half and start of the second half.

“We need to be ourselves to have the best chance to get results. That’s the identity of this club and team.”