Perhaps still shaken by their narrow Revierderby defeat to Dortmund on the last Bundeslga matchday, Schalke played second fiddle to their evening visitors from the very outset, conceding two early goals via defensive errors. Midfielder Ermedin Demirović capitalised both times with clinical finishing, as he calmly slotted a curler past Alexander Schwolow into the bottom right corner to give his side the lead, before placing a low drive at the end of a counter-attack.
Die Königsblauen managed to strike back on the half-hour mark, with a counter of their own seeing Dominick Drexler and Simon Terodde combine in the box, before the latter dinked an sublime effort through a sea of Fuggerstädters trying to cover the goal. Halving the opposition’s lead seemed to inspire the hosts to gather some composure, but with the HT whistle arriving sooner than expected, Schalke coach Frank Kramer still had much to say at the interval.
However, it was Augsburg who restarted on the front foot, pressuring the hosts to defend heartily, and coming agonisingly close via back-to-back opportunities on the hour mark for Mërgim Berisha. The German forward fluffed the first one by skying his shot from point-blank range, before forcing Schwolow into a brilliant save with a powerful low drive.
The visitors were immediately made to pay for the misses, as Tom Krauss sent the Veltins Arena berserk with a deflected goal from inside the box. At 2-2, Schalke looked set to complete the fightback, especially after Berisha received a second yellow card for elbowing. But Augsburg’s spirit was undying, and they won it in the 77th minute from Andre Hahn’s fantastic diving header on the back of Robert Gumny’s cross.
Schalke came close towards the end via Kenan Karaman’s headed effort that went over the bar, but ultimately could not avoid a third defeat in 21 top-flight H2H games against the visitors. The fact that Augsburg began as the side with the fewest shots on target in the league meant very little at the end, as they earned their fourth win of the new season in typically efficient fashion.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Ermedin Demirović (FC Augsburg)
