Head coach Jess Thorup ensured a Bundesliga premiere at FC Augsburg right from his debut. For the first time in their league history, the Bavarian Swabians turned around a two-goal deficit in a 5-2 (3-2) win against 1. FC Heidenheim on Sunday. “What could I wish for more than an away win?” said the 53-year-old on Sunday evening after the celebrated success. Previously, Augsburg had not won a Bundesliga game away from home for over a year.
“Everyone knows what kind of mood we are in right now. The coach said we have achieved something historic,” said striker Phillip Tietz about the Dane’s dressing room speech. After the final whistle, Thorup gathered all the professionals and spoke to the team before completing the interviews. Just a week ago, Augsburg announced the signing of the coach as Enrico Maaßen’s successor.
“This is the right path we have taken,” said Tietz about the first changes that have taken place under Thorup. The coach, who previously also coached FC Copenhagen, said: “After the 2-0 win I thought: What is going on here? But I tried to stay calm.” After the break, they didn’t want to be satisfied with the narrow lead, but wanted to score the fourth or fifth goal. Thorup emphasized that he was “of course very satisfied.”
16 years versus seven days
Striker Phillip Tietz (29th minute), Mads Pedersen (41st), goalkeeper Ermedin Demirovic (42nd), Felix Uduokhai (64th) and Elvis Rexhbecaj (88th) scored for FCA with a hand penalty. League newcomer Heidenheim was on course to celebrate its third home win in a row after two early goals from Tim Kleindienst (17th) and Jan-Niklas Beste (18th). But then the hosts made far too many mistakes in front of 15,000 spectators in the sold-out arena. Augsburg moved past Heidenheim in the table and is now in tenth place.
In the encounter between the longest-serving league coach Frank Schmidt (over 16 years in office) and the newcomer Thorup (seven days), the focus was clearly on the Dane. Thorup stood on the sidelines in a fine suit and had to directly observe how difficult things could be with his self-proclaimed “high ambitions”. His team, which he changed to four positions on their debut, took a collective deep sleep of 93 seconds in the early stages, which was severely punished.
“What more could I want than an away win?”: Jess Thorup : Image: dpa
First, standard specialist Beste kicked a corner in the middle, which Adrian Beck passed across to Kleindienst. The hosts’ celebration had barely died down after the 1-0 win when Augsburg’s defense looked bad again: Kleindienst secured the ball in the middle, Omar Traoré was faster than all of his opponents on the right and Beste switched faster than in the middle the Augsburg defenders. Thorup was threatened with a sporting debacle at the start.
But Heidenheim had the same fate as it did in the home premiere against Hoffenheim. The Schmidt team was too careless with a 2-0 lead and allowed themselves more and more carelessness. When the first goal was conceded, Tietz was completely free after a corner; his powerful volley shot was deflected unstoppable by captain Patrick Mainka. From that moment on, the game tipped more and more towards the guests. It was the first Augsburg goal in over two months in which captain Demirovic was not directly involved.
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But this became important before halftime. First, full-back Pedersen curled a remarkable shot into the top right corner of the goal to make it 2-2 – then it was Demirovic’s turn, who had scored or prepared the last six goals before the Heidenheim game. A sharp cross from Frederik Jensen flicked Demirovic over the line at the second post and scored his fifth goal of the season.
The happy striker demonstratively celebrated with his colleagues in front of the hosts’ corner – he was met with anger from some fans. After the change, the game lost significant momentum. Augsburg’s fans lit up more and more pyrotechnics, defender Uduokhai’s fourth goal – again from a corner – ensured the decision, before Rexhbecaj scored the final point with a penalty.
