FC Augsburg rescued a point right at the death away to Hertha BSC on Saturday. Michael Gregoritsch scored in the 97th minute to make it 1-1. 

Head coach Markus Weinzierl was forced into two changes to the team that beat FC Bayern 2-1 on the last matchday. Both centre-backs, Jeffrey Gouweleeuw (close contact with an infected person) and Reece Oxford (muscle injury) were both missing. Frederik Winther came in for his Bundesliga debut and Ruben Vargas also returned from his quarantine to start the game.

The right-back from the Bayern game, Robert Gumny, moved into the centre of defence, with Daniel Caligiuri beginning in his position. The new-look defence was tested early on, with Ishak Belfodil being denied by Rafał Gikiewicz (7’). FCA sat back in the opening stages and let Hertha come onto them, looking to be dangerous on the break. André Hahn’s shot from range proved to be no danger for the home side, while, at the other end, Gikiewicz again kept out Belfodil (21’).

FCA grew into the game more and more in the first half. Vargas had a shot blocked (24’), then Iago tested out Alexander Schwolow with Augsburg’s best moment to date (28’). As a scrappy first half came to a close, Hertha surprisingly took the lead. Former FCA man Marco Richter pounced on some uncertainty between Gikiewicz and Robert Gumny, and only had to find the back of an empty net to make it 1-0 (40’).

90+7’! Gregoritsch nets a late equaliser 

It took a while for the second half to really get going. Although FCA tried hard to get back into the game, they didn’t create any dangerous chances initially. Hertha had an opportunity on the hour mark but Jurgen Ekkelenkamp only found the side netting (60’). Shortly after, Suat Serdar tested Gikiewicz with a curling effort (61’) which the FCA keeper saved. Weinzierl reacted and brought on Fredrik Jensen and Sergio Córdova to put some fresh legs into his side’s attack (67’).

The substitutes were a clear sign that Augsburg wanted to get on the attack, but they had to also be careful not to concede a second. Goals from Jordan Torunarigha (74’) and Stevan Jovetic (79’) were disallowed for offside. FCA also had a great chance to equalise in between these two scratched-off goals when Iago and then Andi Zeqiri missed opportunities from short-range (77’). Hertha hadn’t killed the game off come the end of the match, and FCA scored a late equaliser in the seventh minute of injury time. Jensen lofted the ball into the penalty box and onto the head of second-half substitute Michael Gregoritsch, who scored for 1-1.

That goal meant FCA got a very late reward for a good away performance. VfL Bochum will be the visitors when we next play on Saturday, December 4th (15:30 CET).  

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