Line-up:
Fabian Bredlow (82' Marius Funk) – Maximilian Mittelstädt (63' Ramon Hendriks), Finn Jeltsch (63' Jeff Chabot), Dan-Axel Zagadou (C) (33' Ameen Al-Dakhil, 89' Laurin Ulrich), Nikolas Nartey (63' Leonidas Stergiou) – Angelo Stiller (63' Atakan Karazor), Grischa Prömel (46' Chema) – Chris Führich (63' Josha Vagnoman), Lazar Jovanovic (46' Badredine Bouanani) – Tiago Tomás (63' Deniz Undav), Jovan Milosevic (63' Ermedin Demorovic)
Match summary
VfB Stuttgart capped off a successful season opening with a 3-1 victory in Saturday’s high-profile friendly against English Premier League outfit Everton FC. Sebastian Hoeneß’s side – who had returned from their training camp in Grassau 24 hours earlier – delivered a solid performance in front of over 40,000 fans at the MHP Arena, and deservedly took the lead through Nikolas Nartey after 16 minutes.
Everton created several opportunities to equalise before the interval, but the English side failed to take their chances as VfB went into half-time with a 1-0 lead.
Hendriks nods home
Stuttgart hit the ground running in the second half and eventually doubled their advantage when Ramon Hendriks headed home a corner on 65 minutes. Everton pulled a goal back through Thierno Barry’s penalty (72’) after VfB goalkeeper Fabian Bredlow had fouled the forward inside the area.
Bouanani completes scoring
VfB remained the better side, however, and wrapped up the victory when Badredine Bouanani found the bottom corner in stoppage time (90’+1).
Goals
16th minute – 1-0: Nartey thumps VfB into the lead with a powerful left-footed drive.
65th minute – 2-0: Hendriks rises highest to nod home VfB’s second following a corner.
72nd minute – 2-1: Barry confidently converts from the spot to give Everton hope.
90th minute +1: Stergiou feeds the ball into the area and Bouanani meets the cross with a first-time finish into the far corner.
Head coach Sebastian Hoeneß:
We’re happy with the day as a whole. There was a great turnout for the season opening.
Reaction
Head coach Sebastian Hoeneß: “All in all, I’m satisfied with our performance. We’ve beaten a good opponent. It was clear that both teams were coming into the game off the back of a week-long training camp. We had some good periods and other spells where we can improve, clearly. That’s just as it should be in a friendly – we can learn a lot from the game. We’re happy with the day as a whole. There was a great turnout for the season opening.”
