Last-gasp home win

Chances galore

VfB fell behind early on once again when Florian Niederlechner got the better of Dan-Axel Zagadou to lift the ball over Florian Müller and into the net in just the fourth minute. However, VfB – playing with a two-pronged attack in Serhou Guirassy and Luca Pfeiffer – responded swiftly and equalised in the 15^th minute when the former headed in from Borna Sosa’s cross.
It became an end-to-end encounter thereafter, with both teams getting forward at pace at every opportunity. Mergim Berisha tested Müller with a lob on the 21^st minute, but the VfB stopper kept it out. The hosts increasingly took control of the game as the half wore on and carved out a number of scoring chances. Pfeiffer’s long-range drive only just missed the target (33′), before the unmarked Silas was thwarted by Mads Pedersen on the stroke of half-time (45’+3).

Late winner

The tempo of the game was far less frenetic in the second period, with VfB easing off as the teams cancelled each other out. Michael Wimmer’s charges went on the front foot once more in the 70^th minute, with Wataru Endo seeing two chances in quick succession cleared off the line following a corner.
Guirassy had an effort fizz just wide of the post five minutes later, and in the closing stages Pfeiffer was twice frustrated by Augsburg goalkeeper Tomas Koubek as well as planting a header against the crossbar. However, Waldemar Anton showed them how it was done with the last of VfB’s 29 shots in the game, receiving Tiago Tomás’ back-heeled pass inside the area before firing the winner low into the net (90’+1).

Goals:

4th minute (0-1): Niederlechner outfoxes Zagadou and dinks the ball over Müller into the goal.

15th minute (1-1): Sosa crosses into the box for Guirassy, who heads in the equaliser.

90th+1 minute (2-1): Tomás flicks the ball into Anton’s path, and he drives it low into the net.

Reaction

Luca Pfeiffer: “We started really badly but were able to react well. After the break we struggled for 15 or 20 minutes but then we started creating one chance after another. You could tell that we always believed we could win. At the end of the day we deserved the three points. The only criticism today is that we should have finished the game off earlier.”

Waldemar Anton: “Even though I needed a couple of minutes straight after scoring and I wasn’t able to celebrate properly, it was a wonderful moment. We deserved to win. We had so many good chances. We didn’t start the match very well, but we never gave up, we grew in confidence as the game wore on and deservedly won at the end.”