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Jeffrey Gouweleeuw (centre) celebrates his opening goal with his Augsburg teammates
Photo: IMAGO/kolbert-press/Christian Kolbert / IMAGO/kolbert-press
Within just four days, FC Augsburg has gained a six-point cushion on the relegation zone in the Bundesliga.
Coach Markus Weinzierl's team won the catch-up game at home against Mainz 05 2-1 (1-0).
Captain Jeffrey Gouweleeuw converted a controversial penalty kick (11th minute), the equalizer by Silvan Widmer (54th) was immediately countered by Ruben Vargas (56th).
The Augsburgers had already celebrated a home win at the weekend thanks to a 3-0 win over VfL Wolfsburg.
The game against Mainz was originally supposed to take place in March, numerous corona cases among the guests had led to the game being postponed.
Mainz played with the best players beyond the long-term injured defender Jeremiah St. Juste - and still had big problems with Augsburg, who brought a lot of aggressiveness and speed into the game and two headers from André Hahn (1st / 3rd) early on degrees came.
So the Augsburg lead was not undeserved, but it was more than happy for FCA: the ball bounced off the foot of Mainz goalkeeper Robin Zentner, Florian Niederlechner followed it up and fell to the ground.
Although there was contact with Zentner, it was probably not the reason why Niederlechner lost his balance.
The Augsburgers still got the penalty, Gouweleeuw converted safely (11th).
Burkardt causes unrest, Widmer equalizes
Afterwards, Mainz gradually managed to playfully control the game.
There weren't many chances to score, but when things got dangerous, it was through striker Jonathan Burkardt: The U21 national striker missed Mainz's best chance with a shot into the side netting (26') and was involved in most of the promising attacks by the guests.
At the other end, a supposed volley from Hahn after a corner didn't count because of a previous handball (32'), a goal by Lee Jae-sung was disallowed for Mainz because it was clearly offside (43').
After the break, Mainz drew hope with Widmer's equalizer (54').
Just two minutes later, however, Vargas saved his foot in a headed corner kick to put Augsburg back in the lead.
This time this lasted until the end of the game, also because Rafał Gikiewicz made several strong saves in the final phase.
While FCA can look forward to a liberation in the bottom of the table, Mainz have to give up in the race for European places: The deficit to sixth place is already six points.
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