Augsburg’s Sandro Wagner credits predecessor Jess Thorup for “leaving me a very stable team” after first Bundesliga win | OneFootball

FC Augsburg proved one of the surprise winners in the 2025/26 Bundesliga’s opening set of afternoon kickoffs. In their first Bundesliga match against SC Freiburg, the Fuggerstädter upset the German Europa League representatives away. Augsburg defeated Freiburg 1-3 at the Europa Park Stadion.

New FCA head coach Sandro Wagner was able to unexpectedly commemorate his first Bundesliga win. Wagner was surprisingly handed the reins of the Bavarian Swabians this summer despite the fact that previous head coach Jess Thorup did well with the team last season.

Wagner mostly stuck to Thorup’s previous set of tactics throughout training camp, but did switch things up in the Pokal and made some bold personnel selections on Saturday. Rising German talent Mert Kömür was surprisingly selected to spearhead the Augsburg 3-4-3.

Kömür managed to register an assist on the second Augsburg goal. The day nevertheless still belonged to Thorup’s old regulars. Thorup’s starting wingbacks Dimitrios Giannoulis and Marius Wolf both scored. So too did Thorup defensive starter Chrislain Matsima.

Wagner remained cognizant of this when speaking to Sky Germany after the match. The former assistant to Bundestrainer Julian Nagelsmann referenced the departed Danish head coach directly when conducting his post-match interview.

“Mr. Thorup left me a very stable team,” Wagner said. “It’s not easy for the players who have been here for a long time to embrace something new. I’m grateful that they are going along with it and are open to my ideas.”

“Sandro is a very good coach,” goal-scorer Wolf noted in his own post-match interview. “We’ve worked extremely hard since day one, laying the foundations in the first few weeks and now ironing out the details. We’re still at the beginning, but we’re getting better every day.”

GGFN | Peter Weis