Head coach Pellegrino Matarazzo’s men fell behind early on through Patrick Ebert’s sixth-minute strike, but VfB were the dominant side for the vast majority of the game and turned things around after the interval.
Mario Gomez grabbed the equaliser after being teed up by Hamadi Al Ghaddioui (66’), who later got on the scoresheet himself when he converted a penalty following a foul on Roberto Massimo (79’). Lilian Egloff sealed the victory with a goal in the last minute.
VfB’s first competitive game of 2020 is against 1. FC Heidenheim at the Mercedes-Benz Arena on Wednesday (kick-off 18:30 CET).
Matarazzo: “I’m satisfied overall. We used the game to try a few things out. We struggled initially and allowed them to score an easy goal, while we weren’t able to find or use the spaces up front. We got better as the match went on though, especially in the second half. It was important that we were in control in almost every phase of the game.”
Line-up
1 Gregor Kobel
3 Wataru Endo (26 Antonis Aidonis, 76')
4 Marc Oliver Kempf (24 Borna Sosa, 76')
5 Nathaniel Phillips
10 Daniel Didavi (31 Mateo Klimowicz, 60')
14 Silas Wamangituka (27 Mario Gomez, 60')
15 Pascal Stenzel (18 Hamadi Al Ghaddioui, 60')
16 Atakan Karazor
20 Philipp Förster (30 Roberto Massimo, 60')
22 Nicolas Gonzalez (21 Philipp Klement, 76')
23 Orel Mangala (25 Lilian Egloff, 76')