Hertha BSC
| 1-0 | Raffael | (86. Min) |
VfB Stuttgart
Cristian Molinaro
Stats 
No joy in Berlin
VfB Stuttgart left countless good chances unused on Friday evening and were eventually beaten 0-1 by Hertha BSC Berlin, who picked up their first home win in the Bundesliga after a very long wait. The only goal on the night was scored by Raffael. VfB coach Bruno Labbadia made two changes to his starting eleven from last weekend, with Stefano Celozzi and Shinji Okzaki replacing Khalid Boulahrouz and Christian Gentner respectively.
Both sides had set out an attacking stall, with Cacau having the first chance of the game. The German internationals attempted lob narrowly missed the target. At the other end, Serdar Tasci made a couple of blocks, first from Raffael and then from Lasogga, to prevent the home side from taking the lead. With just under a half hour played, Okazaki came agonizingly close to putting VfB in front, but saw his headed effort bounce away off the crossbar. Sven Ulreich was twice called into action to first flick a cross off the head of Lasogga and then turn away a goal bound shot from Patrick Ebert. Before the break, VfB had a good shout for a penalty, when Kobiasvili challenged Harnik from behind, but referee Dr. Jochen Drees was not convinced and the sides subsequently went in at 0-0 at the break.
Slideshow
Raffael stuns Stuttgart
As in the first half, VfB had the first opening in the second period too, this time with a shot from William Kvist from 22 meters out which whizzed wide of the post. Soon after Andreas Ottl went close as the game began to develop into an extremely open affair. Thomas Kraft did well to hold on to a shot from distance by Arthur Boka, whilst at the other end, Ulreich did even better to finger tip a Raffael header over the bar at full stretch. As the match moved into its closing phase, the unusually warm evening temperature and high tempo began to takes its toll, with gaps opening widely in both defences. Kraft made a stunning save from a well headed Pavel Pogrebnyak effort to deny VfB and then, disaster struck for the visitors.
VfB-Cheftrainer Bruno Labbadia: "As we had expected, Hertha patiently waited to hit on the break and we controlled the play."
Post match comments
In the 86th minute, Maza slipped, allowing Ramos to get a shot away, which Ulreich parried well. Ebert picked up the loose ball though and floated in a perfectly weighted cross for Raffael to place a looping header into the far corner of the net – 1-0 for the hosts! VfB threw everything into attack in the final minutes but there was to be no salvaging of at least a point as Bruno Labbadia’s men slumped to a narrow defeat at the 'Olympiastadion'.