Ricardo Pepi made his first appearance for FC Augsburg over the weekend in their loss to Chris Richards and Hoffenheim as the Bundesliga returned to action following the winter break.
Hoffenheim 3-1 Augsburg
Augsburg scored early, but Hoffenheim came back with a vengeance to come away with all three points at the PreZero Arena to move them into the top three of the standings.
Chris Richards went the distance for Hoffenheim, completing 72 percent of his passes, winning seven aerial battles along with two shots. Ricardo Pepi played the final 30 minutes of the contest and had a single shot.
Augsburg entered the game looking to pull themselves away from the relegation zone, and they started off well when they scored the opener just five minutes into the contest. Michael Gregoritsch would rise up to head in an Arne Maier corner kick.
The hosts had a chance to level the score three minutes later when Dennis Geiger’s corner kick bounced off several players before falling a the feet of Richards. However, his effort went over the target.
Hoffenheim would eventually find the equalizer in the 38th minute when David Raum’s cross from the left found Ilhas Bebou in the area to steer home.
The Togolese international would put his team ahead six minutes later when he poked the ball past Augsburg goalkeeper Rafal Gikiewicz from a cross by Kevin Akpoguma.
Ricardo Pepi may have been expecting to come off the bench much later in the game, but he made his first appearance for Augsburg on the hour mark. He came close to scoring his first Bundesliga goal connected on a cross from Iago, but his shot went wide of the mark.
Hoffenheim would seal the game in stoppage time when Raum fumbled shot hit the roof of the net.
The win moves Hoffenheim up to third place in the standings with 31points, while Augsburg remains in 16th place with 18 points.
RB Leipzig 4-1 Mainz
RB Leipzig was in command from start to finish as they came away with a comfortable win over Mainz at Red Bull Arena.
Tyler Adams played the entire game, completing 94 percent of his passes and winning two duels.
The hosts were given an opportunity to open the scoring 20 minutes in when the referee pointed to the spot for a penalty he judged that Mainz defender Alexander Hack handled the ball in the area. That resulted in him getting a red card.
Andre Silva stepped up to put away the spot kick.
Dominik Szoboszlai doubled Leipzig’s lead in the 47th minute when Christian Nkunku set up the Hungarian to put his shot past goalkeeper Robin Zentner.
Mainz would cut the deficit in the 57th minute through Lee Jae-Sung as his shot hit the underside of the crossbar before crossing the goal line.
The hosts restored their two-goal lead seconds later when Nkunku collected a through-ball from Szoboszlai to bury it home.
Andre Silva put the game on ice for Leipzig in the 61st minute when he blasted the ball into the back of the net after Nkunku did most of the work to get it into the area.
The win moves Leipzig up to ninth place in the standings with 25 points.
Notes
In other action from the top flight, John Brooks and Wolfsburg’s woes continued as they suffered a 1-0 loss to VfL Bochum.
Timothy Chandler went the distance for Eintracht Frankfurt as they surrendered their lead to fall in a thrilling 3-2 loss to Borussia Dortmund.
Timothy Tillman played 89 minutes while Julian Green came off the bench to play for a minute Greuther Furth shared the points with Pellegrino Matarazzo’s VfB Stuttgart in a 0-0 draw.
Joe Scally was not in the lineup as he continued his recovery from COVID-19 infection as Borussia Monchengladbach came away with a shock 2-1 win over leaders Bayern Munich.
