Wonder goal caps friendly success

It took Mateo Klimowicz just nine minutes to put VfB in front. Silas Wamangituka won possession, raced down the right side and played the ball into the middle, where Gonzalez left the ball for his compatriot Klimowicz to slot in.

In temperatures of over 30 degrees Celsius in Tyrol, Gonzalez made it 2-0 in the 32nd minute following a pass from Philipp Klement before scoring an eye-catching second just seven minutes later. The Argentinian won the ball off Hamburg’s Klaus Gjasula in his own half, spotted goalkeeper Daniel Heuer Fernandes a long way off his line and found the net from close to the halfway line. HSV fought back through goals from Simon Terodde (43’) and Manuel Wintzheimer (66’), but couldn’t deny VfB a deserved victory.

Pellegrino Matarazzo: "Friendlies are primarily about focusing on specific aspects that you want to work on, and today we did that very well. We put some good pressure on their defence and we managed to change the rhythm of our play when we wanted to. Winning the ball back also worked well which meant that we could score a couple of goals on the break. That was one of our aims as it’s what we’ve been concentrating on in our recent training sessions."

Head coach Pellegrino Matarazzo’s side play their second Helden Cup fixture this Saturday, when their opponents are fellow promoted side Arminia Bielefeld.