Newly promoted SV Darmstadt 98 has finally arrived in the Bundesliga with its first away win of the season. The “Lilien” surprisingly won 2-1 (0-0) against the shockingly weak FC Augsburg and inflicted the Swabians their first home defeat since mid-May.
This means that the Hessians have also surpassed their opponents in the table, and FCA coach Enrico Maaßen is threatened with a restless international break.
After the defeat, his sports director Marinko Jurendic avoided a commitment to his head coach, whose dismissal a large number of his own fans had called for after the final whistle. “Personally, I’m brutally disappointed, the bottom line is that it was far too little, especially at home. I have to let this sink in for now“He said in the Sportschau interview.”We see that the team always has fluctuations, but also that the coaching team works extremely hard. We don’t have to include individual people in the overall view, but it is always the big picture. I hope you understand that we do not discuss the head coach’s personality in public. It’s appropriate that we deal with this internally.”
Dream goal from Darmstadt’s Tim Skarke
A dream goal from Tim Skarke (52nd) with a volley and Tobias Kempe with a converted penalty (70th) gave Darmstadt its first away win in the upper house since April 2017 (2-1 at Hamburger SV). Before the score was 0-2, substitute Arne Maier misused the ball and then hit Fabian Nürnberger on the foot. It was one of many inexplicable Augsburg mistakes; the Maaßen team played too predictably and without ideas. Ermedin Demirovic (86th) only scored the goal.
“What was hugely important is that we had much better possession of the ball. That was our plan, to gain self-confidence, and the team did that very well“said Darmstadt coach Torsten Lieberknecht. “It was important for us to improve after the home win and also set an example away. But we have to gain more self-confidence to play with our idea – we managed to do that this time.”
Darmstadt was brave from the start
Both teams had to reschedule the game at short notice. Augsburg was missing Ruben Vargas with adductor problems; Dion Beljo replaced him. Kevin Mbabu was also injured during the warm-up, and Robert Gumny replaced him in the starting line-up. Klaus Gjasula reported sick to the guests, Jannik Müller made his Bundesliga debut at the tender footballing age of 29.
Despite three previous away defeats, Darmstadt presented itself bravely and had a little more of the game early on. Tobias Kempe (33rd) missed the possible 0-1 in a counterattack. On the other hand, Tim Breithaupt (39th) shot just over on a rare occasion. Matthias Bader (40th) was just centimeters away from taking the lead.
Triple changes at Augsburg are of little use
But Marvin Mehlem (45.+2) missed the biggest chance after a bad pass from Finn Dahmen against the FCA goalkeeper. Stander guest Vargas was on his way to his seat after the break when Darmstadt took the lead – and how! First Luca Pfeiffer hit the ball against the crossbar, then Skarke picked up the rebound with his chest and hammered it over the bottom edge of the crossbar into the net.
Augsburg got their first corner in the 56th minute, but it fizzled out without any effect. Coach Enrico Maaßen made a triple change shortly afterwards and brought on Sven Michel, Maier and Mads Pedersen (58th).
But it did little to change the hosts’ awkward game. Only a mistake by Christoph Klarer, who stumbled on the ball in his own penalty area, gave Ermedin Demirovic the chance to equalize, but the top scorer lofted the ball onto the roof of the goal (65th).
In the final phase, Maaßen switched to a back four after the 0:2 and dared to go more offensive – too late. But Pedersen only hit the post (77th), and Demirovic’s goal came too late.
Darmstadt welcomes Leipzig, Augsburg in Heidenheim
The Darmstadt team will face RB Leipzig in the home game on matchday 8 (Saturday, October 21, 2023 at 3:30 p.m.). Augsburg will play away against Heidenheim on Sunday.