Thanks to “Joker” Ruben Vargas, FC Augsburg has again achieved an important victory in the fight against relegation.
Coach Markus Weinzierl’s team won the catch-up game against Mainz 05 2-1 (1-0) and now has a six-point lead over the relegation place before the away game at FC Bayern Munich on Saturday. For the first time since September 2020, the Swabians have had two wins in a row.
Augsburg took the lead early on – after a mistake by FSV goalkeeper Robin Zentner, Jeff Gouweleeuw converted a dubious penalty kick (11th). Mainz then lacked the penetrating power for a long time before Silvan Widmer equalized in a varied game (54th).
Augsburg immediately countered with Vargas, who had just been substituted on (56′). The game should have been played on March 12th, but was canceled and postponed due to a corona outbreak at Mainz.
With the win against VfL Wolfsburg (3-0) on Sunday, FCA started energetically in front of 18,122 spectators and had the chance to take the lead after just 40 seconds: Niederlechner’s header from close range flew just wide of the goal. FSV goalkeeper Zentner grabbed two more times safely.
But then Zentner made a nasty mishap. He let a back pass from Stefan Bell rebound far too far, Niederlechner first intervened and then fell to the ground – the controversial penalty decision by Matthias Jöllenbeck (Freiburg) stood, Captain Gouweleeuw converted safely.
FC Augsburg responded promptly to the Mainz goal
The leadership played into the hands of the Augsburgers. They let the guests come and waited for counterattacks – and almost conceded the quick equalizer: Jonathan Burkardt’s shot only landed on the side netting (26′). Andre Hahn scored in the Mainz goal shortly afterwards, but the goal was disallowed after video evidence because of a handball by the shooter (32nd).
The game was already swaying back and forth at this point, but Mainz had great difficulty asserting themselves. Augsburg consistently had more and also the better chances, but was unsorted in defense when Widmer conceded.
The setback was almost made up for by the unmarked Vargas, and the game became increasingly heated in the closing stages. New international Anton Stach had a great chance to equalize with a header (79′), but Rafal Gikiewicz wasn’t just on the ball at that moment.