Both teams were in poor form heading into the game, but it was Heiko Herrlich and his FC Augsburg side who were victorious, as they put an end to their abysmal losing run away from home.

After making a great start to the season, David Wagner and his FC Schalke 04 side have only won once in the Bundesliga in 2020 and in the two games since returning from the league suspension, they have conceded seven and scored none.

Story of the game

First half

Augsburg grabbed the first goal early and in a spectacular fashion as Eduard Löwen whipped a free-kick from distance into the top left corner, and inside ten minutes the visitors had done what they had failed to do in their last four away games, score a goal.

For the rest of the first half, Augsburg sat back and comfortably defended their one-goal lead, deploying the low block and hitting their opponents on the counter whenever they could.

Schalke’s only chance of note in their first period fell to Rabbi Matondo who used his pace to run into an opening on the left-hand side of the box. Andreas Luthe, who had a solid outing in net for Augsburg, was equal to the winger’s effort and that was all Schalke had to equalise in the first half.

Second half

The second half was more of the same if not worse for Wagner’s men, who continued to toil in their search for an equaliser and some respite from the growing pressure on the shoulders of this Schalke team.

It got worse for the hosts when substitute Noah-Joel Sarenren-Bazee expertly slotted the ball into the top right corner of the net as Salif Sané’s clearing header fell at his feet.

That wasn’t it for the visitor's goalscoring exploits however as another replacement, this time Sergio Cordova, who stole the ball from Levent Mercan which left him one-on-one with the ‘keeper who he dribbled past with ease to slide the ball into an empty net.

What next for Wagner and Schalke?

There is a lot to think about for Wagner, particularly in an attacking sense, considering his side have failed to score in seven of their last nine games.

To put it simply, there seems to be no one who can lead the line for The Royal Blues, the evidence being that a midfielder, Suat Sedar, is the team’s top goalscorer with just seven goals.

Framberger the star in Augsburg's defence

Heading into the game, only Eintracht Frankfurt had a worse away record than Augsburg, and they had not beaten Schalke in their last nine meetings with them.

With the odds seemingly stacked against them, the defence, lead by the MOTM performance of right-back Raphael Framberger, stood up to the challenge and kept their first clean sheet in 10 games.

Framberger won 10 of his 12 defensive duels, along with completing six successful tackles and winning four aerial battles, with his performance symbolising the resiliency Augsburg showed on the defensive end in this game.