Augsburg Beat Schalke 3-0 on Schalke's Bundesliga Return

The Result at the WWK Arena

Augsburg beat Schalke 04 3-0 on Sunday at the WWK Arena in the German Bundesliga, the country's top football division. It was Schalke's first league match after a three-year absence from the competition.

Yahoo Sports reported that Schalke started well and stayed competitive early on, before Augsburg took control and secured a comfortable win. Schalke also had a player sent off, though the reporting available does not say who received the red card or when.

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Karius on the Opening Goal

Schalke goalkeeper Loris Karius took part of the blame for the first goal. He tried to restart play quickly with a throw, but teammate Becker could not reach the pass, and Augsburg turned the loose ball into a cross from Anton Kade that Michael Gregoritsch converted.

"I think we held our own really well in the first half," Karius said. "But in the end, Augsburg deserved the win because of the second half. The red card obviously didn't make things any easier for us."

He declined to dwell on the error. "That happens. Another time, we can turn that into a great counter-attacking opportunity," he said.

Background to the Fixture

Sports Mole reported before the match that Augsburg were entering their 16th consecutive Bundesliga season as one of only six clubs never relegated from the competition. Manuel Baum, 46, took over as interim coach in December in place of Sandro Wagner, then was given a two-year permanent contract after results improved.

According to Sports Mole, 16 players left Augsburg over the summer, with sales including Dimitris Giannoulis, Keven Schlotterbeck and Cedric Zesiger. Rodrigo Ribeiro arrived for more than 4 million pounds, and Gregoritsch, the club's top scorer last season with six goals, joined permanently after a loan spell.

Schalke, seven-time German champions, came up as second-tier champions with 70 points and the best defensive record in Germany's top three divisions. Sports Mole noted they had won just two of their last 45 Bundesliga away games and still have 40-year-old striker Edin Dzeko, set to become the fourth-oldest player in Bundesliga history.

The Cooper Pratt Question

Neither of the two reports available on this fixture, the Sports Mole preview or the Yahoo Sports match reaction, mentions anyone named Cooper Pratt.

No link between that name and this game, either club, or any of the players named above is established in the reporting at hand. Whether such a connection exists is not known from these sources.