Alfred Johansson admits Motherwell paid the price for another red card as their European run ended with a 4-1 defeat away to Europa League finalists Freiburg.
A week after Martin Moormann’s sending-off paved the way for the Bundesliga side to win 3-1 in the first leg of their Conference League play-off at Fir Park, Jake Girdwood-Reich was dismissed just before the hour mark with the second leg in Europa-Park Stadion level at 1-1.
Emmanuel Longelo’s equaliser, following a blunder from home goalkeeper Mio Backhaus, cancelled out an early opener from Derry Scherhant.
However, the Steelmen lost two set-piece goals within minutes of the red card before a late strike from Keisuke Goto sealed a 7-2 aggregate win. Johansson told Motherwell’s official X account: “I think that once again, 11 versus 11, we fight for 60 minutes, and we compete really, really well.
“Once again, a red card, and after that, it’s really, really difficult. And we still fight and try but Freiburg was the better team over those two legs. For 60 minutes in the first leg, and for 60 minutes in the second leg, when we’ve been playing 11 v 11, it’s 2-2 on aggregate.
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“But the two half-hours when we’ve been playing with 10 men, we concede the rest of these seven goals. And so probably, maybe on that, you could argue that it’s fair. But we fight so much and we’ve been doing so much good stuff, so it feels harsh to go home with 7-2.
“But yeah, we have to learn from it.”
Johansson also noted the effort Motherwell put in to get past HB Torshavn and HJK Helsinki in previous rounds. He said: “I’m very proud, and during those games, we’ve been trying to play together a new team without training.
“We’ve been looking really strong at times, and I think the players have been fighting so hard for the badge. I think the effort they put in has been crazy high; the level of commitment and the spirit are so high.
“I think the way that we’ve been playing at times has been really, really strong.”
