AUGSBURG, Germany (AP) — Rodrigo Ribeiro scored for the second straight match and Alexis Claude-Maurice added a second with the final kick of the match as Augsburg beat Cologne 2-0 in the Bundesliga on Friday.
Six days after scoring in a 3-2 win over Wolfsburg, Ribeiro’s neat backheel following a cut from American defender Noahkai Banks broke the deadlock in the 55th minute.
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Claude-Maurice made sure of the victory in stoppage time when, with all the Cologne players in the opponent’s box for a final corner, he charged forward and rolled the ball into the empty goal.
Augsburg’s fifth win in six games leaves them in ninth place, level on points with Eintracht Frankfurt, the team above.
Cologne were missing four players with muscle injuries, a series of absences that coach Lukas Kwasniok called the worst he had ever seen.
The visitors were the more physical of the two teams during a hard-fought first half and were unlucky not to score at the break after Eric Martel’s header came back off the crossbar.
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But Augsburg – wearing a unique jersey designed to highlight the city’s history – took their chances in the second half and achieved a club record, equaling eight consecutive unbeaten matches at home in the Bundesliga.
Cologne have won just one of their last six league matches and remain in 12th place.
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AP Football: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
