Augsburg shock the league leaders!

FCA shocked league leaders Dortmund with a 2-1 home win and three big points in the club’s fight for survival. Dong-Won Ji crowned an outstanding performance with a match-winning brace, with BVB pulling a goal back to make for a nervy end to proceedings.  

FCA head coach Manuel Baum had to make do without Reece Oxford for Friday night’s clash with the league leaders, following his sending off in Freiburg last time out. In his place, Kevin Danso started at centre back for FCA. The fully-recovered Andre Hahn also returned to the starting XI, while Sergio Cordova started on the bench.

Dortmund had the lion’s share of possession in the opening stages, albeit without creating much danger in front of Augsburg’s goal. This was largely down to some compact defending from FCA – who waited inside their own half and only pressed the opposition once they crossed the halfway line. Dortmund’s build-up play was however disrupted effectively with some isolated pressing from the Augsburg frontmen, leaving both sides short of chances.

Ji opens the scoring

With little more than 15 minutes on the clock, Manuel Baum was forced into his first substitution, replacing the injured Stafylidis with Georg Teigl. Shortly after Dortmund’s first shot on target through Akanji, Augsburg went up the other end with Hahn leading the attack. The man on the right wing drilled a low ball into the area, where Dong-Won Ji saw his first attempt blocked, but his second glide into the top corner to give FCA the lead.

The visitors continued to have more of the game, but failed to convert their dominance into chances, but for a Marco Reus header on the half-hour mark. Two big chances in quick succession ended the half, with Thomas Delaney’s effort sailing over and Gregor Kobel pulling off an outstanding save to deny Bruun Larsen from close range.

Ji doubles his money, Paco pulls one back

After half-time there was again little change in the style of play. FCA let Dortmund keep possession, however the opposition were unable to convert their chances. Augsburg defended with courage and always managed to get a foot in. As a result they were able to finally get forward and get a second. Ji found himself alone against the Dortmund defence and pulled off a brilliant chip over Roman Bürki to make it 2-0 (68’). The second goal of the game for the South Korean, who previously played in Dortmund for a half a year in 2014.

Dortmund then pushed harder for a goal but couldn’t find a way through. Kobel had to make his first save of the half in only the 75th minute of the match. A long ball over the top fell to Paco Alcacer in the box, who hit it first time. The FCA goalkeeper was equal to it, however, and stood strong to block the shot (75’). Not long later, however, Kobel was eventually beaten when a mistake by the defence allowed Alcacer an easy shot on target, which he took to make it 2-1 (81’). In the final minutes Dortmund once again were pushing forward but the last chance of the match fell to Mario Götze, who was unable to find a way past Kobel at the post (87’).

And so Augsburg have beaten the league leaders, giving Dortmund only their second defeat of the season, while giving themselves three important points in the relegation battle. On Saturday the 9th of February (15:30 CET), FCA face RB Leipzig away.

Unsere FCA-APP

Jetzt herunterladen!