First win of the season away at Augsburg!

There were two changes to the starting line-up for the trip to Augsburg, with Filip Uremović coming back from suspension to replace Márton Dárdai, while Ivan Šunjić came in for Jean-Paul Boëtius. Myziane Maolida was on the bench once again, but Prince Boateng missed out at short notice due to a knee injury, while Stevan Jovetić was also absent.

Competitive first half – best chances fall to Ejuke and Berisha

Before kick-off there was a minutes silence for the victims of the assassination at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. On the pitch, Hertha started positively, playing high up the pitch. Hertha had the first chance of the game with Wilfried Kanga’s goalbound header blocked after a corner by Marvin Plattenhardt (4’). Hertha continued to spend time in Augsburg’s half, but struggled to create clear cut chances, with the best opportunity coming from another Plattenhardt corner, which an off-balance Kempf could only head wide (18’). Hertha managed to limit Augsburg’s chances and put them under pressure in the first half. Augsburg new signing Mergim Berisha was the clearest threat, first running in behind Uremović, who had to bring him down for a foul and picked up a yellow card in the process, before hitting the bottom of the post from a narrow angle in another incident (27’). Hertha then regained control of the match, having over 65% possession in this phase of the game, and through Jonjoe Kenny, the next shot (34’). Not sixty seconds later, Chidera Ejuke dribbled through on the left hand side, before firing narrowly wide of the far post (35‘). After a competitive and tight game, the two teams headed into half-time level.

Lukébakio puts Hertha in front, Richter guarantees a dream end to the game

Hertha came out for the second half with lots of energy, with Dodi Lukébakio shooting from range after being given the ball by Ejuke (46’). Unfortunately, he shot straight at the goalkeeper. The next notable effort came through Lucas Tousart who shot wide of the left-hand post from the edge of the box (52’). Five minutes later, Lukébakio met a perfect cross from Plattenhardt to head Hertha in front. Hertha continued to dominate the game, with Jean-Paul Böetius (66’), Plattenhardt (67’) and Jonjoe Kenny (69’) all having chances to extend Hertha’s lead. Thanks to Hertha’s compact performance in defence, Augsburg did not create many opportunities to equalise. In the third minute of additional time, there was a dream finish to the game, with Marco Richter, who had earlier come on as a substitute, tapping home. Kenny had cleared the ball after a save by Christensen at full stretch. His clearance fell into the path of Selke, who kicked the ball around an Augsburg defender before unselfishly squaring the ball when one-on-one with FCA’s goalkeeper Gikiewicz. Richter held his nerve to tap home – a perfect end to Hertha’s first win of the season!

This coming Saturday (10.09.22, 15:30 CEST), Hertha will play host to Bayer Leverkusen.

FC Augsburg: Gikiewicz – Bauer, Gouweleeuw, Gumny – Pedersen, Gruezo (36' Baumgartlinger), Caligiuri, Rexhbecaj (82' Petkov), Maier (46' Vargas) – Berisha (74' Hahn), Demirović (74' Niederlechner)

Hertha BSC: Christensen – Kenny, Kempf, Uremović, Plattenhardt (C) – Šunjić, Serdar (58' Böetius), Tousart – Ejuke (69' Richter), Kanga (83' Selke), Lukébakio (83' Dárdai)

Goals: 0-1 Lukébakio (57'), 0-2 Richter (90+3')

Referee: Harm Osmers

Yellow cards: Gruezo, Berisha - Uremović

Attendance: 25,789