Premiere goal for Assignon
©IMAGO
With a mandatory win, VfB Stuttgart took an important step towards the hoped-for direct place in the round of 16 in the Europa League. The DFB Cup winner won the high-risk game against Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv, which was accompanied by massive security precautions, 4-1 (2-0).
Lorenz Assignon (24th minute) with his debut goal and Tiago Tomás (37th) laid the foundation for the third international victory in a row in the superior first half against the still winless guests. Shortly after the substitution, Maximilian Mittelstädt scored a hand penalty (50′). The fact that goalkeeper Alexander Nübel didn’t look good when Roy Revivo conceded a goal (52′) didn’t change the Bundesliga club’s clear success. Josha Vagnoman (90+4) scored the final point to make it 4-1 on his 25th birthday.
In front of 57,000 fans, coach Sebastian Hoeneß’s VfB managed to make amends for the 5-0 defeat against FC Bayern Munich on Saturday, at least in terms of the result. “The game is very important for us. We could tick another goal after the DFB Cup,” Hoeneß explained before the encounter. In the two remaining preliminary round games in the new year at AS Roma and against Bern, the cup quarter-finalists can secure a place in the top eight. VfB would love to avoid the two playoff games and thus two additional English weeks in February, if there are only enough places 9 to 24.
Hoeneß and his team wanted to ignore the extraordinary surroundings of this encounter. Because of the global political situation with the Middle East conflict and fears of anti-Semitic riots, security measures were significantly stricter than usual. The police presence was massive. According to the police, the run-up to the game remained relatively uneventful and the stadium also remained quiet.
The hosts initially dominated the game on the pitch. Initially there was a lack of speed and esprit against the outsiders’ tight defense. But in the middle of the first half the gap was found. Chris Führich passed the ball to Maximilian Mittelstädt with a heel on the left side. The left-back crossed and right-back Assignon, who was a red card against Bayern, scored from a few meters with a volley.
Less than fifteen minutes later, the VfB supporters celebrated again when Tomás shot the ball onto the underside of the crossbar after a pass from Undav to make it 2-0. In the previous action, Undav made the wrong decision when he wanted to push in instead of finishing with force.
Compared to the Bayern bankruptcy, Hoeneß had changed to six positions in his starting eleven. His rotation, which was recently viewed critically, did not have a negative effect this time – just like the personnel problems in the defense. But Maccabi wasn’t a benchmark for that either.
However, the Swabians no longer acted as confidently in the second half as before the change. With the penalty that Mittelstädt confidently converted to make it 3-0, all doubts about three points could have been eliminated. But then Revivo’s shot slipped through Nübel – and just a few minutes later, Dor Peretz had a huge chance for the guests to make the game really exciting again.