First home win for FCA

At the end of a busy week in the Bundesliga, FC Augsburg won their first home game of the season against SV Darmstadt 98. The Swabians beat the guests 1-0. Alfred Finnbogason scored the only goal of the match right at the beginning of the second half. FCA head coach Dirk Schuster made some changes to the team that faced Bayer Leverkusen for the match against his former club. Raul Bobadilla replaced Jan Moravek in the starting lineup. Before the match, the FCA fans paid tribute to Daniel and Max, two fans who tragically lost their lives in a car accident travelling home from an FC Augsburg away game in Gladbach a year ago. It took FC Augsburg some time at the beginning to get control over the match. However the hosts were still finding it difficult to break through the opposition defence. SV Darmstadt were waiting to attack on the counter which meant chances on goal were few and far between in the early stages. In the 23rd minute, Raul Bobadilla had a great opportunity to score for FC Augsburg but his half-volley hit the corner of the crossbar. Konstantinos Stafylidis came close to opening the scoring in the 42nd minute but his direct free-kick went just wide of the post. Alfred Finnbogason beat his defender in the box but Esser managed to parry away his shot with his foot. A ricochet fell to substitute Jonathan Schmid who managed to get a shot away straightaway but Esser was there again to prevent him from scoring. Leon Guwara was sent off just before half time after a foul on Daniel Baier. The teams went in 0-0 at the break. FC Augsburg had a dream start to the second half. Ja-Cheol Koo put a cross into the box from the right and Alfred Finnbogason met it with his head to give his team a 1-0 lead. It was his first goal of this season. Ji nearly headed home minutes later but his shot went over the crossbar. The goal gave FC Augsburg momentum and they had a lot of goal scoring chances. Finnbogason latched onto the ball after it had been blocked by a Darmstadt defender and was one-on-one with Esser who came out and intercepted his shot. Gojko Kacar tried his luck from long range in the 61st minute but his shot rolled just wide of the right post. Darmstadt didn't give up and they were continuously looking for the equaliser. But FC Augsburg stood strong in the defence and didn't let the opposition players run behind them. Jeffrey Gouweleeuw tested Esser in the 85th minute with a long-range effort but the goalkeeper handled it comfortably. Stafylidis blasted the ball into the side netting just minutes before the end of the match. The referee blew for the final whistle and FC Augsburg took the three points.