The day before the game it was confirmed that Odilon Kossounou (muscle injury), Julian Baumgartlinger and new signing Sardar Azmoun (both in rehab training) would be sidelined. Also absent from the Black and Red line-up was Jonathan Tah who missed his first match in the Bundesliga campaign due to an infection. Head coach Gerardo Seoane opted to replace him with Edmond Tapsoba who has just returned from the Africa Cup of Nations. Good news: Captain Lukas Hradecky was back in goal for the Werkself after recovering from a Covid-19 infection.
With the vocal backing of the North Stand, the hosts took control of the game while VfB initially looked to remain solid in defence. Patrik Schick had the first effort on six minutes but his shot from 20 yards out went high over the bar. A Piero Hincapie header from a corner also missed the target (9'). The best chance in the opening 15 minutes fell to Schick but his left-foot shot on 13 minutes it the outside of the left-hand post.
The Black and Reds did maintain the upper hand but there were initially no clear-cut goalscoring opportunities – space was hard to find against a well organised VfB side. But then the ball was in the back of the visitors' net after 34 minutes: A wonderful chip from Robert Andrich over the VfB defence found Florian Wirtz running in and the 18-year-old coolly slotted the ball past the Stuttgart keeper Florian Müller from close range – however, our number 27 was offside when the ball was played. The scoreline remained 0-0. Shortly after that, Chris Führich had the best chance for VfB with a long-range effort. Hradecky was in the right spot to turn the ball away to the side (37').
It looked like the two sides were set to go into half-time without a goal being scored – but then Moussa Diaby struck four minutes before the break. The France international received the ball from Andrich and three Stuttgart players were unable to prevent him firing the ball under the bar to make it 1-0. The Werkself took that lead into half-time.
After the restart, the Black and Reds were hit by an equaliser: Stuttgart's Orel Mangala beat his marker to set up Tiago Tomás. The new signing turned the ball into the net at the near post – 1-1 (49'). That scoreline soon changed with a header from Amine Adli from a Demirbay free kick restoring the lead for the Werkself.
Gerardo Seoane made a double substitution in the middle of the second half bringing on Exequiel Palacios and Charles Aránguiz as two new holding midfielders to replace the booked Andrich and Demirbay. Adli, scorer of the second goal for Bayer 04, was taken off shortly after that with applause from the fans as he left the pitch.
Wirtz received the ball from substitute Aránguiz to apparently seal the game on 86 minutes. VfB hit back with new signing Tomas scoring his second to make it 3-2 to seal a perfect first time out in the starting line-up. Bayer 04 striker Schick rounded off proceedings with his 19th goal of the season – with an assist from his strike partner Wirtz.
The Werkself are away to Mainz 05 on the next matchday. The game on Friday 18 February kicks off at 20.30 CET.
Match stats:
Bayer 04: Hradecky – Frimpong (Fosu-Mensah 90+1'), Tapsoba, Hincapie, Bakker – Andrich (Palacios 70’), Demirbay (Demirbay 70’) – Diaby (Alario 90+1'), Wirtz, Adli (Paulinho 74’) – Schick
Stuttgart: Müller – Stenzel (Klimowicz 84’), Mavropanos, Ito, Sosa – Silas (Tibidi 59’), Endo (Coulibaly 71’), Mangala, Führich – Karazor – Tomás
Goals: 1-0 Diaby (41’), 1-1 Tomás (49’), 2-1 Adli (52’), 3-1 Wirtz (86’), 3-2 Tomás (88’), 4-2 Schick (89’)
Booked: Demirbay, Andrich, Bakker – Endo, Mavropanos
Referee: Dr. Brych (Munich)
Attendance: 10,000 (sold out)
It has been a long time since feeling what it’s like to come away empty-handed. The last – and so far only – defeat of the season, in Elversberg, was two months ago. Since then, Bayer 04 have followed that up with seven wins and a draw. Now it has happened again away to TSG Hoffenheim. As the match progressed, the Werkself grew in confidence and “could even have scored the opening goal”, as Robert Andrich said after the game. In the end, it was the side from Sinsheim who sealed a 3–0 victory after “hectic closing stages” (kicker). The Werkself review.
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