VfB Stuttgart continues to stagger towards fourth Bundesliga relegation. Thanks to Chris Führich’s late goal (89th), the Swabians secured a point in the 1-1 (0-1) win over VfL Wolfsburg, who were now also mathematically saved, but the saving bank is four points away with two games to go. The goal to equalize came from a Joker cooperation, because flank came from youngster Enzo Millot.
Pellegrino Matarazzo clapped visibly exhausted with Sven Mislintat, but there was no time to take a deep breath at VfB Stuttgart: “Never again 2nd division”, the Cannstatt curve set the direction, but the Swabians are still threatened with fourth Bundesliga relegation.
The 1:1 (0:1) against the saved VfL Wolfsburg, which Joker Chris Führich secured with his late goal (89th), hardly helped. “In the relegation battle, every point is important, we’ll take the good feeling with us,” said Führich skybut Sasa Kalajdzic said: “In our situation it’s not enough.”
The saving bank is four points away with two games to go, the lead over the relegation zone for VfB, who have not won in five games, is very thin with two points. The rest of the program has a lot to offer with games at champions FC Bayern and against European Cup aspirants 1. FC Köln.
The equalizer came from a cooperation of the substitutes, after the cross from youngster Enzo Millot Führich executed at the far post. The strong John Anthony Brooks (13th) got rid of the wolves’ last relegation worries with his goal in front of 52,230 fans.
Managing Director Jörg Schmadtke agreed after the “minimum target” was achieved skythat Wolfsburg wants to go into the coming season with coach Florian Kohfeldt (contract until 2023). The fact that the season was “unsatisfactory” is not solely the fault of the coach: “He led the team to where we wanted them to be in the end.”
VfB showed a lot of commitment, but the team, who had changed three positions, did little or nothing in terms of play. National player Lukas Nmecha missed a good guest chance (10th) before Brooks scored his first goal of the season: he ran through the penalty area completely unmolested after a corner kick from Maximilian Arnold and headed in from five meters after a slight nudge against Waldemar Anton.
VfB Stuttgart: Kalajdzic gets too few balls
Wolfsburg, who had to do without defender Sebastiaan Bornauw (back) for a short time, soon gave Stuttgart more space. The Swabians seemed overwhelmed by the fact that they suddenly had to play the game. Only at the end of the first half did they come up stronger, captain Wataru Endo (39th) and Tiago Tomas (42nd) missed the equalizer.
Even after the change of sides, VfL mostly let the home side have the ball – there was hardly any danger. Matarazzo, who brought on two fresh attacking players in Chris Führich and Philipp Förster (57′), didn’t go unnoticed either.
The only recipe, however, continued to be crosses from Borna Sosa, which far too rarely found a target. The much sought-after striker Sasa Kalajdzic received few balls and saved almost none.
In a copy of the guest lead, Brooks almost made it 2-0 again with a header after a corner (65th). It was one of the increasingly rare VfL excursions into the opposing penalty area, and Max Kruse was not a factor in his 300th Bundesliga game.
