Augsburg comeback win against exhausted Freiburg team

Only 72 hours after their highly emotional run to the round of 16 in the Europa League, an ultimately weak SC Freiburg suffered a defeat in the league against their favorite opponents FC Augsburg. Coach Christian Streich, weakened by a flu-like infection, saw his team lose 2-1 on Sunday evening after leading 1-0 at half-time.

"We lost a lot of energy on Thursday and that cost us strength," said Grifo on DAZN. Augsburg had increasingly pressed and "we didn't find any solutions".

With their goals, defender Felix Uduokhai (72nd minute) and substitute Arne Engels (81st) turned the game around for FCA, who ran energetically after the break and moved up to eleventh place in the Bundesliga table with their first home win in 2024.

"We were the better team for 90 minutes, it was only a matter of time before we made it 1:1 and then we knew we could turn the game around," said Ermedin Demirovic: "We want to keep going and then we can keep looking up."

Vincenzo Grifo had put the visitors ahead in the 19th minute with a penalty. For a long time, it looked like Freiburg's seventh win in a row against FCA. After the 120-minute show of strength against RC Lens, in which Freiburg turned a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 win after extra time on Thursday evening, the visitors ran out of gas too early in front of 28,894 spectators in the Augsburg Arena.

The opening goal was a gift from the hosts, as FCA professional Fredrik Jensen impetuously hit Grifo on the foot in the penalty area. There was no real danger in that scene. Grifo converted ice-cold into the left corner of the goal. Streich had to replace Lukas Kübler, who had injured his thigh, with Matthias Ginter in defense before the break.

Augsburg could have turned the game in a different direction early on. Iago hit the post in the 3rd minute after a pass from Ruben Vargas - that was bad luck! Coach Jess Thorup saw his team predominantly moving forward, often driven on by the agile Vargas. What was missing was a successful finish. A Vargas free-kick flew over the goal (44'). Philipp Tietz missed on the volley (50'). Too many crosses and corners were ineffective.

But then Augsburg were rewarded after SC goalkeeper Noah Atubolo made several strong saves. Uduokhai then dusted off a shot held by Tietz. And Engels scored after great preparatory work from Ermedin Demirovic. Arne Maier hit the post and it would have been 3:1 very late on.

"We tried everything, threw everything into it. But we conceded goals too easily again. It's bitter because we would have liked to have scored again in the Bundesliga," said Freiburg's Christian Günter.