Training camp ends with friendly draw

Markus Weinzierl’s men were held to a 2-2 draw by Belgian First Division A side Cercle Brugge on the penultimate day of their stay in La Manga.

With a strenuous week of training behind them, VfB enjoyed the better of the play in the first half and had some encouraging moments. Mario Gomez thought he had put his side in front in the 21^st minute when he fired in from Nicolás Gonzalez’s left-wing cross, only to see the assistant referee flag for offside. Cercle’s best opportunity of the first 45 minutes fell to Guevin Tormin, but Ron-Robert Zieler was equal to his shot.

Following a scoreless first half, it did not take long for the goals to arrive after the break. Gomez broke the deadlock for VfB in the 53^rd minute when he latched onto a fine ball from Dennis Aogo, before making it 2-0 just two minutes later from Erik Thommy’s pass. However, Cercle quickly got themselves back in the game when Dylan De Belder netted from close range. Weinzierl’s side held on until the 88^th minute, when Adrien Bongiovanni equalised with a free-kick.

The VfB squad leave Spain and travel back to Stuttgart on Saturday.

Markus Weinzierl: “Overall it was a positive end to a positive training camp. Of course we wanted to win and we should’ve preserved the 2-0 lead until full time, but I’m optimistic nevertheless. The positives outweigh the negatives, so it was a good test for us ahead of the start of the second half of the season next week.”