´Football is brutal´, bemoans Leverkusen boss Hjulmand

Kasper Hjulmand bemoaned the brutal nature of football after Bayer Leverkusen’s home defeat to Augsburg.

Fabian Rieder scored a penalty deep in second-half stoppage time to seal a 2-1 comeback win for the visitors at the BayArena.

Leverkusen went ahead early on through Patrik Schick, but after Rieder dragged Augsburg level, Hjulmand’s team could not find a second goal.

Augsburg goalkeeper Finn Dahmen pulled off some superb stops to keep Leverkusen at bay, making nine stops in total, and the sucker punch arrived when Montrell Culbreath felled Uchenna Ogundu, and Rieder did the rest.

“We played with so much dominance and had so many big chances,” said Hjulmand, whose team lost a Bundesliga match for the first time since February, despite creating chances worth 3.8 expected goals (xG) to Augsburg’s 1.33.

“It’s frustrating for me and the team that we couldn’t score more than one goal.

Augsburg snatch a late win.

90+8 | 1-2 | #B04FCA pic.twitter.com/G0PIz1p09U

— Bayer 04 Leverkusen (@bayer04_en) April 18, 2026

“When I see how we played, I feel good. The fans also gave incredible support until the end.

“Football is brutal sometimes, ending up losing a game despite such a good performance. We’ll analyse now what we can do better and look ahead.”

Defeat left Leverkusen sixth in the Bundesliga, four points off the Champions League places, ahead of Stuttgart taking on Bayern Munich on Sunday.

And Leverkusen defender Jarrel Quansah wants to see a reaction in the run-in.

He said: “We need to take this defeat as motivation and take the energy into the coming games.”

The big games come thick and fast for Leverkusen, who take on Bayern in the DFB-Pokal semi-finals on Wednesday, before travelling to Koln in the Bundesliga.