Five magical minutes were enough for FC Augsburg to save themselves after a 2-0 deficit in the extra time of the cup game at VfL Bochum. But the penalty shoot-out had to decide, and the magic was no longer on the Augsburg side. After every four penalties converted, Arne Maier chased the ball over the goal as the fifth shooter and then saw the VfL goalkeeper Manuel Riemann, who had recently been substituted for the penalty shootout, shoot in at Bochum 7: 6 (2: 2, 2: 2, 1: 1) -Victory.
Augsburg have lost the fourth of their last five competitive games without a win and are eliminated. It visibly hurt the coach Markus Weinzierl and the sports director Stefan Reuter, but they don’t have to fear for their jobs. President Klaus Hofmann had ensured confidence before the game by giving the Augsburger Allgemeine announced: “There is no personnel discussion, neither on the position of the sports director nor on that of the coach.”
At the start of the game, the line-ups provided two examples of how things often turn out differently than expected in football. Bochum’s coach Thomas Reis did not bring about the unchanged after the 2-0 victory of his team on Sunday against Eintracht Frankfurt Winning Teambut six new players. Weinzierl, on the other hand, did not radically change his starting XI after the 4-1 defeat in Mainz, as expected, but only took two players out. Carlos Gruezo was replaced by Tobias Strobl in midfield, and center forward Sergio Cordova replaced Andi Zeqiri.
It was actually immediately apparent that these Augsburgers wanted to make up for something. They played frankly and freely forward. However: The first Bochum corner in the 12th minute immediately brought trouble, and it should have been a pleasure for the Bochum coach that three of his six new starting eleven were involved in this 1-0 lead. Konstantinos Stafylidis played a flat one-two with Gerrit Holtmann right out of the corner and then crossed far over to the second post, where Milos Pantovic poked the ball completely free into the goal.
Shooting competition on the grandstand roof
The Augsburgers remained well structured, but with Zeqiri and Strobl awarded two hopeful degrees so high and far that one would have thought that there was a bet in the team who would thrash the ball onto the roof of the grandstand first. If that was really the case: Nobody won the bet.
In the second half, Augsburg made it much better, but only after Bochum had increased to 2-0 in the 53rd minute. Two other new players were involved in this second Pantovic goal: goalkeeper Michael Esser from long tee and Christopher Antwi-Adjei as assist provider.
Having reached the low point of 0: 2, the Augsburgers pulled themselves out of the swamp within five minutes. Reece Oxford scored two minutes later with a header to make it 1: 2 (55th) after a free kick from Maier – and Ruben Vargas another three minutes later with a stab to 2: 2 (58th) after a shot on goal from possibly offside Zeqiri; there is still no video assistant in the second round of the cup. That opened up a new perspective for them: light at the end of the tunnel.
Because the game remained a brisk exchange of blows, the extension was a welcome bonus for the 15,220 spectators – even if no more goals were scored from the game and this exemplary, sparkling cup evening had to be decided in the ultimate committee procedure.
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