Vincenzo Grifo's opener was cancelled out by Ruben Vargas as Augsburg battled back to hold Freiburg to a 1-1 draw at the WWK Arena.

Augsburg 1-1 Freiburg
Goals: 0-1 Grifo (64'), 1-1 Vargas (80')

Augsburg began the day in ninth, five places and as many points better off than their visitors, but it was Freiburg who started on the front foot. The Black Forest club's 3-5-2 formation gave captain Christian Günter plenty of license to bomb forward on the left and he draw an early corner after one such run. Ermedin Demirovic was preferred to Nils Petersen in attack, and the summer signing from Alaves nearly slipped Lucas Höler in for the opener soon after, but his strike partner lost his footing and ran the chance straight into Rafal Gikiewicz in the home goal. Grifo was the next to try his luck after nutmegging Robert Gumny and drawing a foul on the far side of the box, but the Italy winger's subsequent free-kick came to nothing. Andre Hahn might have made Freiburg pay for that profligacy towards the end of the half, but his effort sailed wide and Robert Schröder's whistle for half-time went with the deadlock intact.

Augsburg coach Heiko Herrlich sent forward Marco Richter on for right-back Gumny for the second half and his presence proved positive early on when he slipped Hahn through for a one-on-one chance, but the one-time Germany international was pulled back for offside. Demirovic and Höler tried to combine at the other end moments later but there was too much on the former's pass for the latter to connect. Demirovic made way for Petersen and Freiburg made the breakthrough soon after, although it was Grifo who made the difference, controlling beautifully in the area and side-footing the ball home. Freiburg looked in control of the fixture from there, but a late cross found its way to Vargas at the back post and the Switzerland international curled home the equaliser - with the help of a deflection - and it ended honours even.

Match stats

• Grifo scored his third goal of the season. The German-born Italian has had a hand in nine from 10 games in the Bundesliga this term, his best ever return at this stage.
• This fixture is yet to produce a goalless draw in 31 Bundesliga meetings and counting.
• Freiburg are without a win in eight games following their Matchday 1 victory over VfB Stuttgart.
• Vargas is also up to three goals for the campaign - halfway to his 2019/20 tally after just nine games, six of them starts.
• Six of Augsburg's 11 goals this season have been scored inside the final 15 minutes.

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Line-ups

Augsburg: Gikiewicz - Gumny (Richter 46'), Gouweleeuw (c), Uduokhai, Iago - Caligiuri, Khedira (Gregoritsch 73'), Strobl, Vargas - Niederlechner (Gruezo 82'), Hahn
Unused subs: Koubek, Suchy, Oxford, Petkov
Out: Bazee (knee), Framberger (suspended), Jensen (ankle), Moravek (thigh), Pedersen (muscular)
Coach: Heiko Herrlich  

Freiburg: Müller - Gulde (Heintz 83'), Lienhart, Schlotterbeck - Schmid, Santamaria, Höfler, Günter (c) - Grifo - Demirovic (Petersen 58'), Höler
Unused subs: Uphoff, Abrashi, Til, Jeong, Tempelmann, Boukhalfa, Schade
Out: Abrashi (not included), Flekken (elbow), Haberer (ankle), Kübler (groin), Kwon (not included)
Coach: Christian Streich

About the clubs

FC Augsburg

WWK ARENA

SC Freiburg

Europa-Park Stadion