A week ahead of the first competitive game of the season in the DFB-Cup in Cottbus (August 13th, 18:30 CET), head-coach Hannes Wolf’s men took on Real Betis in a test friendly. For the clash with last season’s fifteenth placed side in the Spanish Primera Divisón, new signing Holger Badstuber was not in the squad, instead going through an individual training session in Stuttgart. Anto Grgic (blow to the knee) did not make the trip to Reutlingen either.
5,400 spectators in Reutling’s 'Stadion an der Kreuzeiche' saw the Wasenelf create more chances than their opponents in the first-half, but it was the Spaniards who got off to the better start. A shot by León (1') was blocked away by Timo Baumgartl, whilst Fabián tested VfB keeper Ron-Robert Zieler soon after (5').
For the hosts, Emiliano Insua got a move going forward in the seventeenth minute, with Josip Brekalo ultimately getting a shot away, but keeper Hernandez was alert and averted the danger. The resulting corner from Dzenis Burnic found Daniel Ginczek in the area. The striker’s initial header was blocked, but at the second time of asking, the goal-getter netted to put VfB in the driving seat.
Real Betis soon after made effective use of a free-kick to level the scores. The punched clearance by keeper Ron-Robert Zieler landed kindly for Fabián, who drove home from twenty meters out. VfB had two good chances to restore their lead before the break through Josip Brekalo. The Croatian attacker fired just wide in the 30th minute and then struck the post with a shot ten minutes later.
The visitors made the brighter start to the second period, with León narrowly missing the target with a free-kick from eighteen meters out (50'). Just three minutes later, the Betis striker had more fortune, hammering a shot under the crossbar to put his side in front (53'). On the hour-mark, substitute Ailton turned a shot just the wrong side of the post from distance. Both coaches opted to make a number of chances in the following minutes. VfB’s final chance to level the scores fell to Anastasios Donis, following some good work by Gnetner, but the Greek could only hit a Betis defender’s leg with his shot (81').
VfB head-coach Hannes Wolf on the match: "We had trouble getting on the ball because of the possession game played by Betis. We did however manage to create a couple of good chances in the first-half and on a few occasions it was only the final ball that let us down. In the second-half, we also found ourselves chasing the game for long periods. Betis put us under more pressure than our previous opponents and we didn’t deal with that very well. On the whole, it was a test friendly that showed us just what we have to work on."
The VfB Stuttgart line-up:
Zieler (46’ Langerak) – Pavard (65’ Zimmermann), Baumgartl (75’ Werner), Kaminski (75’ Zimmer), Insua (58’ Ailton) – Akolo (65’ Asano), Ofori (65’ Gentner), Burnic (65’ Mangala), Brekalo (65’ Green) – Ginczek (65’ Donis), Terodde (65’ Özcan)