Neestrup: We cannot lose matches like that

F.C. Copenhagen head coach Jacob Neestrup says his team "simply have to be able to defend better" after the 2-1 defeat to Jagiellonia Bialystok in the UEFA Conference League on Thursday.

The Lions led through Pantelis Hatzidiakos' 12th-minute goal but were overturned in the second half. Afimico Pululu levelled the scores on 51 minutes, before Darko Churlinov bagged the winner for the visitors in the seventh minute of stoppage time.

"We just mustn't lose a game like that. We simply have to be able to defend better on a goal kick with ten seconds left in the game," said Neestrup afterwards. "It's extremely disappointing and that's what matters right now.

"There were otherwise many excellent things in terms of performance, because we created what we needed to during the match, but after they equalised in the second half we had a harder time cutting into them and didn't succeed as well as in the first half. We became too open and played too dangerously, and therefore we can only blame ourselves that it ended this way.

"I'm unhappy with both the big chance they had in the middle of the second half, and that we didn't at least see out the draw but allowed them to score that goal in the very last seconds. This cannot happen.

"Otherwise, I also have to say that once again we underperformed in terms of our ability to take advantage of our chances. It doesn't only apply today. We are creating the chances we expect to create, but we're not good enough when executing the final bit. That's the one reason why we lost today, and the second is, as I said, the mistake at the very end."