FC Augsburg were victorious in their friendly match against Grasshoppers held at the training ground at cap off their first week back. In tough conditions, Enrico Maaßen’s side secured a 3-0 win – after a very efficient first-half performance.

Maaßen named 26 players in his squad for the game against the record Swiss champions, who are seventh in the Swiss Super League after 16 games. As players with slight knocks received a break alongside World Cup participants Ruben Vargas, Robert Gumny and Carlos Gruezo, some FCA youth players were also called up to the squad. 19 players would get minutes, whilst the others competed a training session on the next pitch along. 

The guests from Zurich had the first goal-scoring opportunities of the game. Meritan Shabani, born in Munich, had the first (10’) and Bendeguz Bolla (21’) was the second player to fail to give his side the lead. An Augsburg defender would instead measuredly put his team in front – Mads Pedersen played through Frederik Winther, who started at left-back, and he slotted home from the left after 27 minutes. FCA kept pushing and scored two further goals within the first half. Petkov kept calm in front of goal after some nice play from Florian Niederlechner (37’), and then Arne Maier converted from close range to make it three (41’). 

Koubek saves penalty 

Icy temperatures meant the half-time pause was a short one, and Tomáš Koubek came on for Rafał Gikiewicz. The Czech was able to show his worth straightaway following a long-distance effort from Filipe Carvalho (50’) and went on to save a penalty from Guilherme Schettine just minutes later (53’). At the other end, Julian Baumgartlinger rose highest after Maier’s corner, his header sailing just over the bar (62’). Maaßen made five changes just seconds later, bringing on the likes of Franjo Ivanovic (U23) and Mert Kömür (U19) on. Fabian Wessig and Marcus Müller of the reserve team were also brought on in the closing stages of the game, with Kömür (87’) and Maier (88’) missing chances for a fourth. 

FCA’s next friendly comes against 1. FC Heidenheim on Friday 16th December, and it will also be behind closed doors. 

FCA: Gikiewicz (46’ Koubek) – Pedersen (62’ Framberger), Bauer (62’ Oxford), Uduokhai, Winther – Baumgartlinger (62’ Kömür), Rexhbecaj (82’ Wessig), Maier, Petkov (62’ Zehnter) – Demirović (78’ Müller), Niederlechner (62’ Ivanovic) 

Goals: 1-0 Winther (27’), 2-0 Petkov (37’), 3-0 Maier (41’)

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