Through a combination of sprinting drills, passing exercises and shooting practice, VfB Stuttgart made the most of their final training session ahead of their last league phase assignment in the UEFA Europa League. The boys from Cannstatt host Swiss outfit BSC Young Boys on Thursday evening in a match that is set to be a nerve-jangling affair (kick-off 21:00 CET), with both teams needing the points as they eye the knockout rounds.
“I haven’t looked at the permutations because I’m only focusing on what we can control,” said Sebastian Hoeneß. “We want to produce a very good performance and do what we need to do, so that we can achieve the best possible outcome in the league phase.”
VfB are currently 13th in the standings with 12 points from seven matches so far. As such, Hoeneß’s men are already guaranteed a spot in the knockout-phase play-offs on 19 and 26 February, but they could still go straight through to the round of 16 if other results go their way.
Basics first
In order to do so, they must finish in the top eight. Such a scenario is only possible if VfB beat Young Boys, while they also need five of the seven teams directly above them (Roma, Ferencvaros, Real Betis, Porto, Genk, Crvena Zvezda and PAOK) to drop points.
“We have a clear idea of how we want to approach the game against Young Boys,” said Hoeneß. “The key is to repeatedly go back to basics and then use that foundation to develop the core aspects of our game.”
The Swiss side sit 23rd in the table and are also currently in a play-off berth. “They have clear patterns of play, have a lot of individual quality, and have a very experienced coach in Gerardo Seoane,” added Hoeneß.
Hendriks and Jaquez set to return
There was plenty of positive news on the personnel front. Ramon Hendriks is in line to return with a face mask after breaking his nose against Borussia Mönchengladbach, while Luca Jaquez and Bilal El Khannouss are available again after respectively recovering from a muscular complaint and serving a suspension. Dan-Axel Zagadou, Tiago Tomás and Lazar Jovanovic are all sidelined.
