Ekdal puts it plainly: “One half cost us the game, shame about the league”

Albin Ekdal looks back on the first half against Lazio this afternoon as a big disappointment.

“It was a first half to forget: trailing 2-0 and down to ten men,” the midfielder began. “Then we started playing well, we scored a goal and nearly equalised. It hurts but football can be like that.

“Now we must finish the season well. We’ll try to win all four games, starting with Parma. We have a duty towards ourselves and the fans to try.

“The first half cost us the game,” the Swede continued. ”It’s a shame because we’ve had a great season so far. We’re happy with the gaffer and we’ve worked so hard this season. Our common goal is to qualify for Europe and we’ll start again from there.

“We came out of the changing room for the second half a completely different team, but we had too many problems at the start. It was more our mistakes than Lazio playing well. You can’t concede two goals from two counter attacks in 20 minutes. We could have avoided the red card as well.”