A week after the 2-2 draw against Bayern Munich, FCA have taken another point off a top side. At VfL Wolfsburg, FCA produced a strong defensive performance to keep the score at 0-0 and get their first clean sheet this season.

Head coach Martin Schmidt made two changes following last week’s 2-2 draw against Bayern Munich, with captain Daniel Baier returning to the starting lineup after missing five matches with a calf injury. After his last-gasp equaliser against Bayern last week, Alfred Finnbogason also started, taking his place up front alongside Florian Niederlechner.

The first chance of the game came to the hosts, as Jerome Roussillon found William, whose header was no problem for FCA goalkeeper Tomas Koubek (3’), beginning a lively first fifteen minutes in the Volkswagen Arena. Josep Brekalo sent Felix Klaus through one-on-one with Koubek, but the Czech was on hand to make a strong save. Koubek’s long ball found Niederlechner, who passed to Vargas, but home goalkeeper Pavao Pervan was on hand to cut it out (9’). Back at the other end, Klaus didn’t take his time and fired a shot well wide of the Augsburg net (10’). Following that there were two Niederlechner efforts in five minutes, with one shot landing on the roof of the net and the other held well by Pervan (11’ and 16’).

After this eventful opening phase, the game calmed down substantially. Both teams shared the possession equally, but couldn’t fashion clear-cut chances. Uduokhai, Augsburg’s defender on loan from Wolfsburg, was on hand to clear a chance before it could get to Wolfsburg striker Weghorst (22’). On the other hand, Philipp Max delivered two threatening set pieces, but neither were converted (25’ and 38’). The last chance of the half came from the hosts, when Marcel Tisserand headed over the bar, and with no added time, the referee blew for half-time (45').

Compact FCA defence remains strong

Both teams started the second half without having made any new substitutions. The first chance of the second half came to the hosts once more, as Williams shot wide of the goal (48’). Augsburg suffered from some poor finishing in the next two chances, where Niederlechner didn’t put enough power on his shot (51’) and Finnbogason didn’t strike the ball cleanly enough (53’).

Although Oliver Glasner’s men created more and more chances in the Ausgburg penalty area, FCA’s defenders stood strong and limited the number of genuine opportunities well. 20 minutes from time Martin Schmidt made his first change, with Iago replacing Vargas. Furthermore, Jeffrey Gouweleeuw was able to get his first minutes for the side this season.

Drama-filled closing minutes – Wolfsburg celebrations cut short

Late on, the game was suddenly exciting again. The home fans were sent into raptures as a cross from Maximilian Arnold found Joao Victor, who fired in to initially give the home side a 1-0 win minutes from time. However, after consulting with the Video Assistant Referee, the referee decided to disallow the goal due to an offside in the build-up. FCA also had chances to win it in the dying embers of the game, but both Marco Richter and Alfred Finnbogason’s shots were too inaccurate.

Ultimately FCA produced a very strong defensive performance, and Wolfsburg played their first game this season without scoring, and both sides took a point. The next chance for Augsburg to get a win is next Sunday, 3rd November (18:00 CET) where Augsburg take on Schalke 04 at the WWK- ARENA.

Unsere FCA-APP

Jetzt herunterladen!