Striving to make amends. Under this motto, FC Augsburg started the mission to stay in the league in 2025. After the embarrassing 1:5 in Kiel in the last game of the previous year, they urgently wanted to show a reaction and ideally keep the points against VfB Stuttgart at home. In the end, however, the guests were a bit too big.
The FCA wanted to get into this game through duels, commitment and passion, in which Jess Thorup relied on the traditional 5-3-2 system. With Maximilian Bauer in defense for the injured Keven Schlotterbeck and Robert Gumny on the right wing for Marius Wolf, who was out at short notice. Phillip Tietz had to sit on the bench up front, while Alexis Claude-Maurice and Samuel Essende started. The Dane made the most significant change in goal, with Finn Dahmen starting in the Bundesliga for the first time this season.
1st half: VfB Stuttgart presses, but FC Augsburg holds its own
In the PK before the game, Thorup emphasized that they didn’t want to let the guests find their way into their game. However, little of this was initially visible on the newly laid lawn. From the start, Stuttgart took control and restricted FCA in their own half. The Augsburgers tried again and again to create pinpricks, but the greater chances went to VfB. However, both Chrus Führich with a free kick and Anthony Rouault with a header missed them. In the 20th minute it was the EX-FCA player Ermedin Demirovic who gave his old club a gift by putting a header free in front of Dahmen that somehow missed the goal. The lead for Sebastian Hoeneß’s team would have been deserved at this point. In the 29th minute, Thorup had to react unintentionally for the first time. For Maximilian Bauer, who had to be treated in the meantime, 18-year-old debutant Noahkai Banks made his Bundesliga debut.
Surprisingly, the Augsburg team were not at all unsettled by this change, but were now beginning their best phase. The hosts managed to win the second balls again and again and put a lot of pressure on them. However, Robert Gumny missed FCA’s best chance to date to take the lead from a tight angle in the 41st minute. Alexander Nübel parried and then vented his anger. Since not much else happened until the break, we went into the break with a goalless draw.
2nd half: Augsburg starts better, but Stuttgart scores the goal
Just as the teams went into the dressing room, they also entered the field again after the break, with visual advantages for FC Augsburg. Red-Green-White got off to a better start in the second half, hardly allowing the guests to develop and, as at the end of the first half, acted much more aggressively in the duels. The first better chance still went to the guests. Jeff Chabot headed a cross from close range just over the goal (60′). But they did better in the 65th minute. Angelo Stiller played a chip ball to substitute Deniz Undav, who missed the first shot just in front of Dahmen, just not offside, but pushed the ball over the line in the follow-up to give VfB Stuttgart the lead. Unlike in the first half, VfB now converted their good phase into a goal, and Augsburg now had to chase an unpleasant deficit. Thorup reacted to the new situation with a triple substitution, bringing on Phillip Tietz, Arne Maier and Henri Koudossou for Essende, Onyeka and Gumny (73′). The Augsburg team wore themselves out a lot as a result, but it was rarely dangerous for Nübel. The substitution of Fredrik Jensen for Claude-Murice in the 83rd minute didn’t change that. The Stuttgart team were waiting for counterattack opportunities in the final phase, but no more goals were scored on either side. The game ended 0-1 from Augsburg’s perspective.
At the start of the new year, Jess Thorup and his team failed to show a reaction to the Kiel debacle. The good news is that the next opportunity will come next Wednesday, when FCA faces Union Berlin at the end of the first half of the season. Kick-off: 8:30 p.m.
Also read: FC Augsburg: The big balance sheet at the end of the year
