Gregoritsch admits his luck in escaping red

FC Augsburg’s Michael Gregoritsch thanked his former teammate Igor Matanovic for keeping him on the pitch during the 2-2 draw with SC Freiburg.

Igor Matanovic scored the equalizer for Freiburg in their come-from-behind draw away at Augsburg. In doing so, the Serbian striker helped his former teammate Michael Gregoritsch to avoid a direct sending off.

Gregoritsch used his hand to block Johan Manzambi’s strike from the goal-line, but the referee Martin Petersen decided to only punish the striker with a yellow card as Matanovic scored from the rebound.

“I think with us leading 2-1, a red card plus a penalty for Freiburg would’ve been a bombshell in the 60th minute,” said the loan signing from Brøndby. Gregoritsch also referred to his intervention as both “reflexive action” and “stupid”.

Augsburg are winless in their last five games, and that run doesn’t look like ending soon with their next game pitting them against league leaders Bayern Munich on matchday 19.