Defeat in Berlin

VfB Stuttgart suffered a 2-0 defeat in a vital relegation six-pointer away to Hertha BSC Berlin on Bundesliga Matchday 31 on Sunday. The result leaves VfB four points adrift of outright safety with three games left to play this season.

Early setback

The home side had much the better start in front of 55,000 spectators at the Olympiastadion, and took the lead through Davie Selke as early as the fourth minute. Pellegrino Matarazzo’s side needed a while to settle themselves after that shock, but grew into the game as the half wore on. Nevertheless, they were unable to carve out any clear-cut chances of note and went into the break 1-0 down.

Bad luck for Mavropanos

Stuttgart were the better team in the second half and were unfortunate that Konstantinos Mavropanos’ shot only struck the bar after taking a deflection off Marc Oliver Kempf in the 52nd minute. VfB threw everything forward in the closing stages in search of an equaliser, but Hertha scored a decisive second via Ishak Belfodil in the third minute of stoppage time to put the seal on their victory.

Goals

4th minute: Marvin Plattenhardt whips a cross from the left into the box, where Davie Selke arrives to fire Hertha 1-0 up.

90’+3: Hertha win the ball in midfield and quickly break forward, culminating in Belfodil netting the home side’s decisive second goal.

Reaction:

Pellegrino Matarazzo, VfB head coach: “We were far too passive and weren’t energetic enough in the first 30 minutes. We didn’t manage to implement our plan for the game. There’s no excuse for that. It simply wasn’t enough. The team worked hard to equalise in the second half, but the necessary precision and, on occasion, communication, was lacking. We’re now focusing on what we can do, and we’ll try to get some important points at home to Wolfsburg next week.”

Waldemar Anton: “We were asleep for the first half, especially in the first few minutes of the game, and we went behind early on. We tried to turn it around in the second half, but we just weren’t accurate enough in the final third. It’s a frustrating defeat, but we’ve got to keep going. Next week we’ve got an important home game against Wolfsburg, and that’s what we’ll be focusing on in the coming days.”