Super-sub Muto seals Mainz win at Augsburg

Berlin (AFP) – Japan striker Yoshinori Muto on Sunday again came off the bench to score his second goal in just three Bundesliga games in Mainz’s 3-1 away win at Augsburg.

Muto came on with 66 minutes gone for Colombia striker Jhon Cordoba, who had scored Mainz’s early opener, and stabbed the ball over the line nine minutes from time after some good play by Yunus Malli.

This was Muto’s second goal off the bench this season after he netted, with only his fourth touch of the game, late in Mainz’s 2-1 defeat at Borussia Dortmund on the opening weekend.

Mainz are in the Europa League this season, drawing their first group game 1-1 at Saint Etienne on Thursday, but this was their first German league win of the campaign after also drawing 4-4 with Hoffenheim last weekend, when they squandered a 3-0 lead. 

On Sunday, Augsburg had again threated to share the points after Greece defender Konstantinos Stafylidis equalised in the 73rd minute to make it 1-1.

But a bullet-header from Malli restored Mainz’s lead two minutes later before Muto made sure of the three points to leave both teams in mid-table.