Nurnberg earned a slender 1-0 win over Augsburg in the first-leg of their relegation play-off encounter.
Home side earn slender first-leg win
Nurnberg earned a slender 1-0 win over Augsburg in the first-leg of their relegation play-off encounter.
Christian Eigler grabbed the all-important winning goal for Nurnberg five minutes from time.
The home side laid siege to the Augsburg goal for practically the whole 90 minutes with their first big chance coming with 25 minutes on the clock.
Nurnberg's top goalscorer this season, Bunjaku, was left in too much room at the near post, but Dominik Reinhardt managed to stick out a leg to deflect the Swiss striker's shot over the crossbar.
Bunjaku missed an even better opportunity 10 minutes before the break when he was again left unmarked inside the six-yard box, but this time he headed the ball over the crossbar with the goal at his mercy.
Augsburg goalkeeper Simon Jentzsch ensured his side remained on level terms in the 57th minute with a double save, first denying Andreas Wolf with a reflex save before recovering to push Bunjaku's rebound behind for a corner.
Bunjaku will probably be glad to see the back of Jentzsch after these two play-off matches, especially after he saved his 67th minute penalty.
Jonas de Roeck tugged the shirt of Eric Choupo-Moting and referee Babak Rafati pointed to the spot, but Jentzsch dived the right way to push Bunjaku's spot-kick away.
The Augsburg goalkeeper then denied Eigler and Javier Pinola as Nurnberg struggled to find a way through.
But they got the advantage they were looking for in five minutes from time when Eigler flicked Marcel Risse's free-kick past Jentzsch to finally break the Augsburg resistance
Nurnberg will now travel to Augsburg on Sunday for the second leg hoping to secure their Bundesliga survival.
