Commanding win at Bremen

Match summary

The first moments of danger came from the hosts at the sold-out Weserstadion. In the third minute, Justin Njinmah narrowly missed the target, before Marco Grüll was twice denied by saves from Alexander Nübel.

VfB take control

However, Sebastian Hoeneß’s side – with five changes from the midweek Europa League win over Maccabi Tel Aviv – came into the game more and gradually took control. With 23 minutes gone, the over 4,000 away fans thought that they had cause to celebrate, but Deniz Undav’s goal was disallowed for offside by VAR.

Quickfire double before the break

The Stuttgart supporters were not to be denied as, five minutes before half-time, Bilal El Khannouss headed in the opening goal from a perfect Jamie Leweling cross.

Leweling himself then hammered the ball into the net from 30 metres in the 44^th minute to give VfB a deserved 2-0 lead at the interval.

Werder reduced to 10

In the 59^th minute, Bremen defender Karim Coulibaly was shown a second yellow card for a foul on Atakan Karazor, meaning Stuttgart played the rest of the match with a man advantage. They immediately had two more good chances through Josha Vagnoman and El Khannouss, but goalkeeper Mio Backhaus reacted well both times.

Undav settles it

Hoeneß’s men remained in full control and when Undav made it 3-0 from another Leweling assist in the 79^th minute, it was game over at the Weserstadion. Chris Führich put the cherry on the cake of a brilliant performance with a fourth goal in the seventh minute of stoppage time.

Goals

40^th minute: Leweling delivers a good cross from the left into the penalty area, where El Khannouss powers a header into the left corner from seven metres.

44^th minute: Leweling fires a thunderbolt into the roof of the net from 30 metres.

79^th minute: Leweling cleverly passes the ball back to Undav, who slots it into the left corner from 14 metres.

90^th +7 minute: On the counter, Führich curls an unstoppable shot into the right-hand corner from eight metres.