The 2025/26 Bundesliga campaign officially reached its half-way point on Thursday night as FC Augsburg hosted Union Berlin in the final match of the "Hin-runde". Manuel Baum's Fuggerstädter celebrated Alexis Claude-Maurice 's very first goal of the entire season as they charged ahead 1-0 at home. It took the man who scored nine Bundesliga goals last season (including a Lupenreiner hat trick) 16 league rounds to finally open his account. As it turned out, Claude-Maurice turned in an absolute stunner.
Augsburg worked hard to defend their slender 1-0 lead, but were eventually undone by Union Berlin head coach Steffen Baumgart's famous 'Midas Touch'. Once again, Baumgart's substitutes came to the rescue. Three of the players Baumgart introduced late on to score the 1-1 at 90+2. Union subs have now scored the club's last five goals. Striker Marin Ljubicic – in just his second appearance of the season – has now scored a late equalizer in back-to-back matches. Ljubicic's 2025/26 account features two goals in only 20 minutes of football.
Get German Football Newsis pleased to supply a full rundown of the match, full player ratings for both sides, the Man-of-the-Match award, and our tactical review of the most important aspects of the fixture. As will be covered down below, Baumgart's "Midas Touch" has much to do with a late match tactical tweak he's been employing over the last five league games.
The rundown of the match – inclusive fan protests – first.
Neither side produced a goal scoring chance in the opening 19 minutes. Newly re-procured Augsburg striker Michael Gregoritsch inadvertently ran into former Augsburg man Rani Khedira not long after kickoff. Play was halted for a time as the Union medical staff went through the concussion protocols with their midfielder. The game seemed not to recover much flow after this early interruption, though both teams also cancelled themselves out tactically (observed below) and has issues with their general timing.
The first real chance of the game came in the 19th-minute when Union midfielder Andras Schäfer headed a decent Oliver Burke cross wide. A few minutes later, Union attacker Woo-Yeong Jeong had a crack from about 15 meters out. Burke himself shot wide after a decent Union counter in the 29th minute. Union appeared the slightly livelier side in the opening half-hour. Both teams were then given a break once a joint protest action between the Union and Augsburg fans took place at the half-hour-mark
As is always the case when a Bundesliga match takes place solely for the benefit of a TV contract , Bundesliga stadium goers protest what they consider to be an affront to their loyalty to their club. The fact that a Bundesliga fixture is being played on a Thursday night is due to the fact that the DFL awarded Sky a Thursday night game during the rare "Englischer Wochen" in which the Bundesliga plays during midweek. Supporters from both sides threw objects on the pitch and chanted "Scheiß DFL" in the 30th-minute.
It took seven minutes to clear the rubber balls and flummis thrown onto the pitch. The prolonged interruption didn't end up leading to the teams producing much better football. The ball remained glued to the midfield as neither side managed to win multiple ground duels. As one would expect, it would take some dead ball situations to liven the match up. The Bavarian Swabian hosts received the chance to dust off their set-piece playbook once the match entered first-half injury time.
Claude Maurice sent in a wonderfully curled free-kick at 45+2 that was only cleared by Union defender Diogo Leite . Robin Fellhauer nearly capitalized on a second effort, but at least won the first corner of the game while trying to work the rebound. The subsequent corner did produce danger as FCU keeper Frederik Rønnow had difficulty clearing a Keven Schlotterbeck header. Claude Maurice would later threaten with another free-kick at 45+5.
Just before it was time to head into the locker room, Claude-Maurice produced his stunner at 40+6. The Frenchman sat deep and intercepted another Union clearance after his drop ball. From at least 25 meters out, Clause-Maurice tomahawked in a beautiful strike that seemed perfectly telegraphed to land in the right corner. Rønnow stop absolutely no chance.
Playing with renewed vim and vigor, one could barely recognize Manuel Baum's XI after the change-of-ends. After sitting back timidly for most all of the first half, Augsburg moved the ball forward more courageously after the restart. It still took another dead ball to produce the half's first chance. Claude-Maurice actually struck the post with another fine free-kick from 18 meters out in the 58th-minute. Two minutes later, Claude-Maurice spurned an excellent FCA counter that nearly ended with Anton Kade scoring the 2-0.
The only Augsburg substitute to really make a mark was Mert Kömür, who played an important role in a counterattack in the 81st. The celebrated Germany U21 international sadly couldn't supply the finish. Augsburg had some other decent opportunities (discussed in the tactical review below), but it was mostly Union down the stretch. It genuinely appeared as if it would not be Union's day with Querfeld (71st) and Khedira (79th) missing the biggest chances at an equalizer.
It truly didn't look to be Union's day when match official Florian Badstubner sent Union wingback Derrick Köhn off on a straight red card in the 89th. Köhn played the ball with his high boot, but couldn't manage to avoid studding FCA substitute Samuel Essende in the face after touching the leather. Two minutes after Köhn's sending off, Union scored their equalizer.
Just like on Saturday, it was January 2024 transfer flop Marin Ljubicic who scored the equalizer. To make matters even slightly more ridiculous, dead-weight squad member Alex Kral who crossed the ball in and struggling FCU striker Andrej Ilic (off the bench) who officially supplied the assists. Also much like on Saturday , the goal wasn't exactly the prettiest.
Ljubicic simply poached home his finish.
Finn Dahmen (6)– Cedric Zesiger (4), Keven Schlotterbeck (6), Noahkhai Banks (6) – Dimitrios Giannoulis (5), Elvis Rexhbecaj (5), Kristijian Jakic (4),Robin Fellhauer (8)– Alexis Claude Maurice (9), Anton Kade (9)– Michael Gregoritsch (4)
Substitutes: Han-Noah Massengo (7) , Marius Wolf (6) , Mert Kömür (6) , Samuel Essende (5) , Fabian Rieder (-)
Frederik Rønnow (7)– Diogo Leite (7), Leopold Querfeld (8), Danilho Doekhi (6)– Derrick Köhn (4), Andras Schäfer (5),Rani Khedira (6),Christoph Trimmel (6) – Ilyas Ansah (6),Woo-Yeong Jeong (7) – Oliver Burke (6)
Substitutes: Aljoscha Kemlein (6) , Livan Burcu (4) , Andrej Ilic (6), Alex Kral (6), Marin Ljubicic (7)
Augsburg may have dropped points again, but Baum and the rest of the team can take enormous solace in the fact that Claude-Maurice is back up and running. The unlikely strike of the post robbed Claude-Maurice of his brace. The FCA attack only really got rolling in the second half thanks to Claude-Maurice's 12 sprints and three long dribbles. Optically, the 27-year-old looked exceptionally strong in his final 38 minutes on the pitch. Baum unfortunately had to withdraw him for a "curtain call" in front of the fans. Otherwise, we might be discussing a different result.
Baum made four changes to the XI easily dismantled by Gladbach early on Sunday. Kristijan Jakic and Elvis Rexhbecaj replaced the previous midfield double six set-up of Han Noah Massengo and Mert Kömür. Dimitrios Giannoulius returned from his yellow card suspension to take over for emergency replacement Mads Pedersen at left wingback. Gregoritsch took Fabian Rieder's squad slot while Anton Kade moved back to Rieder's position.
The team lined up in a 3-4-3 formation.
Lineup—FCA—(3-4-3)
Watching Michael Gregoritsch work in his first Bundesliga start since returning to German football, the Austrian international appeared far slower than his 31-years should leave him. To be fair, he never was the fastest of forwards. Gregoritsch held the ball up reasonably well on the few occasions he got touches in, but these were simply too few and far between as the separation between Baum's top two axes were simply too far apart. The newly refreshed double-six duo won their fair share of duels, yet themselves struggled to move the ball with conviction.
Fellhauer and Kade got a few clean one-twos rolling in the first half and did very well on the 60th-minute counterattack. When Marius Wolf entered for Giannoulis in the 75th, Fellhauer moved over to the left while Wolf took the left. This switch led to one decent chance from forward punching Noahkai Banks in the 77th and another very near miss from Fellhauer in the 87th. Massengo was by far the best of Baum's five subs. It was also rather cool to watch cameras catch the Belgian juggling the rubber balls the fans threw on the pitch in the first half.
Phrew. One wants to give Baum the benefit of the doubt with the squad rotations during this "Englischer Woche", but Massengo at least probably should at least been allowed to play from the start. The back-three did an especially poor job on the low outward cycles for much of the match, suggesting that Baum needs to get some of the basics down with his defenders. One mustn't forget Baum's overall reputation as a trainer. Anyone for the double shivers of the "Geisterspiel Era" with Schalke?
It also proved rather weird to not see Baum engage with the team during the protest break. One must talk with one's players whenever there's a long-pause in the action, particularly if they played as bad as Augsburg did during the opening half hour. Baum never exactly enjoyed the reputation of a tactical wizard and Augsburg certainly don't need him to be. That being said, the "steady hand" the club seeks needs to do better with his one-on-one with players.
Baumgart also made four changes to the XI that lined up against Mainz, lending Woo-Young Jeong a start after his "super sub" appearance over youngster Livan Burcu. Ilyas Ansah also got the nod over Andrej Ilic in attack. Oliver Burke moved up from the right buttressing support attacker role to spearhead Baumgart's 3-4-3; totally changed on the top two axes.
Farther down the pitch, Andras Schäfer (midfield six) and captain Christopher Trimmel (right wingback) took over for Aljoscha Kemlein and Janik Haberer on straight swaps. There were plenty of rotations on various charges in the attack, but Burke for the most past appeared responsible for handling the center with his pace.
Lineup—FCU—(3-4-3)
As the player ratings above make clear, Union played by far the more attractive football. Jeong, Burke, and Ansah can all take pride in their performance, even if the finishing touch was lacking. One found little fault with Union's play throughout much of the second 45 as well. Unlike Keven Schlotterbeck and the FCA back-three, Leopold Querfeld mostly got the triangles right. Old Man Christopher Trimmel (38) did very well on set-pieces.
Ahem.
This is how Baumgart gets late goals out of his subs:
Lineup—FCU—83rd minute (4-3-3)
Cool no?
As this particular GGFN author has noted multiple times , Baumgart deserves immense credit for finally shaking this team out of Urs Fischer's far more conservative 3-3-2-2. It literally took over two years and two other head coaches (Nenad Bjelica and Bo Svensson) to make it happen. It took Baumgart himself roughly ten months on the job to get the team drilled in a 3-4-3. Now, two months later, Baumgart has two attack-minded formations at his disposal.
Opponents will eventually catch up to the 4-3-3 late match re-format and it won't prove the case that Union subs shine forever. Furthermore, one sincerely doubts that this squad possesses the quality to challenge for the Conference League place. That notwithstanding, Baumgart's team are only about 12 points from safety at the official halfway point of the season.
The author gives them maybe eight more rounds to reach 35 points.
