FCA beaten 2-1 by Darmstadt at home

Late rally falls short

It was too little, too late from FC Augsburg on matchday 7 in the Bundesliga, as they suffered a 2-1 defeat to SV Darmstadt 98 in front of 29,200 fans at the WWK ARENA.

FCA head coach Enrico Maaßen was forced to make a change to his starting line-up due to Ruben Vargas’ adductor injury, meaning Dion Beljo was handed his place. There was then another alteration at short notice after Kevin Mbabu pulled up in the warm-up. Robert Gumny moved up from the bench as a result.

The hosts started strongly and created the first chance of the game inside eight minutes, although Gumny’s cross was headed wide by Iago. Darmstadt slowly battled their way into the match and had their first openings towards the closing stages of the first half. Tobias Kempe fired narrowly over the top (34‘), before Matthias Bader also failed to hit the target from a promising position (40’). A mistake at the back from Finn Dahmen then opened the door for Marvin Mehlem to strike in added time, but the FCA goalkeeper made up for his error with a fine save (45+2’).

Demirović’s goal back isn’t enough

The second half began without any changes and with a real setback for Maaßen’s men. A speculative long-range volley from Luca Pfeiffer rattled the woodwork and FCA seemed to have escaped, but the rebound was quickly chested down by Tim Skarke, who fired a rocket into the roof of the net from a tough angle (52’). Chasing the game once more, Augsburg had a golden chance to equalise when the ball dropped to Ermedin Demirović after good pressing by Sven Michel, but his chip over the stranded goalie landed on the roof of the net (65’). The home side were made to pay just five minutes later, with Arne Maier penalised for a foul on Fabian Nürnberger in the box, and Kempe stuck away the resulting spot-kick to double the lead (70’).

FCA didn’t give up though, and Mads Pedersen hit the post in the 77th minute. Demirović then did get on the scoresheet to give hope for the final 10 minutes, turning and sharply firing the ball past Schuhen to make it 2-1 with his fourth goal of the season (80’). Crosses were flying in as Augsburg tried to rescue a point, but the late rally fell short. After the international break, the team will be back in action on Sunday, 22nd October against another promoted side, 1. FC Heidenheim.