Comfortably through to second round

Match summary

Early substitution

VfB dominated the game against the ambitious third-tier outfit from the off at the Ostseestadion, although Sebastian Hoeneß was forced into a change after just nine minutes, with Josha Vagnoman replacing Nikolas Nartey due to injury.

Pejcinovic at the double

Rostock initially withstood the VfB pressure well with a back five, but with 18 minutes gone, new signing Dzenan Pejcinovic embarked on a solo run from Tiago Tomas’ pass and slotted the ball into the bottom right corner from 12 metres.

In the 25th minute, Hansa goalkeeper Luca Unbehaun diverted a shot from Jeff Chabot onto the right post, but 12 minutes later Unbehaun was picking the ball out of his net again. Pejcinovic was left unmarked from Deniz Undav’s lay-off and he made no mistake.

Bredlow saves

Shortly after that, Fabian Bredlow made an important save from Yannick Michaelis to preserve the two-goal lead for Hoeneß’s men at the break.

Chance for Rostock

The hosts had the first opportunity of the second half but Bredlow made another good save from Leon Dajaku’s long-range effort in the 62nd minute. Stuttgart continued to have the game under control in the second period, though.

Quickfire double seals it

Two goals inside the space of eight minutes confirmed VfB’s passage to the second round, though, with Tiago Tomas making it 3-0 before Pejcinovic completed his hat-trick in what was an all-round impressive team performance.

Goals

18th minute – 0-1: Pejcinovic opens the scoring with a low shot after a solo run.

37th minute – 0-2: Undav lays the ball off to the unmarked Pejcinovic, who coolly buries it into the right corner from 14 metres.

74th minute – 0-3: Undav plays in Tomas, who fires the ball into the Rostock net from a tight angle.

82nd minute – 0-4: Vagnoman squares the ball into the penalty area and Pejcinovic just has to tap it in from close range to complete his hat-trick.

Post-match comments

Sebastian Hoeneß: “Our objective was to reach the second round, and now we’re happy to have won comfortably. The goals helped the game settle down. We need to keep our feet on the ground despite this good start.”

Deniz Undav: “At the start of the match we held back for a few minutes to see what Rostock’s approach would be. We could have varied our attacks and used the wings a bit more, but it was a comfortable win and a good debut for Dzenan.“

Dzenan Pejcinovic: “First and foremost it was important to reach the next round here in Rostock. I’m pleased with my debut and that I was able to repay the faith put in me. After going 2-0 up I felt that we needed to step things up a bit, which we managed to do. Now we’re shifting our focus onto training in the coming week and the start of the Bundesliga campaign.”