The game between FC Augsburg and VfL Wolfsburg was something special before it even started. The 25-year-old Dutchman Vincent Heilmann was responsible for this because he became famous as the second youngest interim coach in Bundesliga history because of the corona infection of Wolfsburg head coach Florian Kohfeldt on Sunday. Only Bernd Stöber was younger in this function.
Apparently, it wasn’t due to Heilmann’s very active coaching that the Wolfsburg lost 0:3 (0:1) in Augsburg and thus missed the chance to say goodbye to the relegation battle with a win. Instead, after the third loss in a row, their trend continues to point downwards.
The Brazilian Iago put FC Augsburg in the lead after just 50 seconds, later Florian Niederlechner (63′) and Mads Pedersen (69′) increased the lead. The Augsburgers are now three points ahead of relegation place 16 and can also play the catch-up game against FSV Mainz 05 on Wednesday, in which they could take a big step towards staying in the league with another win.
Weinzierl had asked for more courage – FCA implemented it
Augsburg coach Markus Weinzierl called for a more courageous approach for the final phase of the season after his team failed to defend two leads with a wait-and-see approach in the 2-3 defeat in Stuttgart before the international break. “We will go for everything or nothing in every game in April,” Weinzierl announced.
That sounded surprisingly bold and like an all-in in the relegation battle, which hardly seemed possible against Wolfsburg because Weinzierl’s regulars on the offensive had signed off for the game. The most successful attacker with seven goals, Michael Gregoritsch, was out due to a corona infection, as was Ruben Vargas due to tonsillitis. After all, André Hahn was tested free by Corona, he was able to participate at least in the final phase.
Instead of the usual offensive trio, Niederlechner started at the front, flanked by Ricardo Pepi and often by Pedersen. On the left side, they had obviously internalized Weinzierl’s announcement in a very special way. Artfully with the heel, Pedersen played the ball into Iago’s run, which bent inwards and, after a swerve with the right, completed the ball elegantly to take the lead. The 1-0 after less than a minute of play had probably even exceeded Weinzierl’s boldest targets.
It was him: FCA captain Jeffrey Gouweleeuw (left) points to Iago, who scored in the first minute to give Augsburg the lead.
(Photo: Christian Kolbert/Imago)
Even after that, the Augsburgers remained quite aggressive, at least after winning the ball and in their traditional counter-attacking style. Another noteworthy shot on goal could not be observed for a long time.
Although Wolfsburg increasingly took control of the game, they rarely became dangerous. One such exception was Lukas Nmecha’s shot after he wobbled out Augsburg centre-backs Reece Oxford and Jeffrey Gouweleeuw. That was in the middle of the first half and it wasn’t until the middle of the second half that there were any chances worth mentioning again. However, these belonged to FCA, and two of them used Niederlechner and Pedersen. Heilmann had to watch helplessly.
