FC Augsburg can continue to dream of international business. A mistake by the guests against Union Berlin resulted in the decision. They are suddenly in the middle of a relegation battle again.
Thanks to striker Phillip Tietz and former Union player Sven Michel, FC Augsburg won their home game against Union Berlin and can continue to have legitimate hopes of taking part in the Europa Conference League next season. The two strikers helped the seventh-place team to a somewhat fortunate 2-0 win (0-0) in the second half.
This means that FCA has reduced the gap to Eintracht Frankfurt in the table to three points. The Hessians are in sixth place, which entitles them to the Conference League. Participation in the Europa League is still possible for Augsburg if the Fuggerstadt team overtake Frankfurt and Bayer Leverkusen, who have already qualified for the Champions League, win the DFB Cup final against 1. FC Kaiserslautern. Then the European Cup place would go to the winner of Berlin to sixth place in the Bundesliga. Seventh place would then become the Conference League place.
Union Berlin has meanwhile missed a big step towards staying in the league. The “Iron” didn’t play badly in Augsburg and had the opportunity to take the lead, but in the end they didn’t score. With five games left, Union is six points ahead of relegation place 16. On Saturday, Mainz 05 could move up to three points with a win against TSG Hoffenheim. Then the capital city club would still have to worry about staying in the league in the season finale.
That’s how the game went
In the absence of the injured right-backs Kevin Mbabu and Robert Gumny, FCA coach Jess Thorup initially opted for an experiment with a three-man defense in the 3-1 defeat against TSG 1899 Hoffenheim a week ago. There was no sign of that against Union. From kick-off, Maximilian Bauer, a trained central defender, occupied the right flank.
The Augsburg team, who were also missing the injured Kristijan Jakić, Iago and Fredrik Jensen, initially got themselves into trouble against one of the Bundesliga’s weakest offensive teams. Defender Jeffrey Gouweleeuw missed a long ball, goalkeeper Finn Dahmen had to sprint out of the goal and save from Union’s Benedict Hollerbach (12th). This scene only raised the pulse of the Augsburg fans for a very short time.
The Berliners tried to get to the top quickly and directly. And coach Nenad Bjelica’s team always managed this surprisingly well. After a combination via Hollerbach and Mikkel Kaufmann, Alex Kral (26th) slid past a cross by just a few centimeters and was ready to take a shot.
And the Augsburg people? They lacked courage in the first half. They developed neither speed nor force when moving forward. They ended the first 45 minutes without a shot on goal.
Augsburg had Leite to thank for their dream start to the second half. The central defender played a back pass straight into Tietz’s feet without any pressure. The former Darmstadt player scored his eighth goal of the season (47th). However, FC Augsburg did not gain any security after the opening goal. Michel, who was just not offside, at least made things clear late on, according to video evidence (81′).
2024-04-12 20:24:07
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