Goal premiere for Massengo
©IMAGO
VfB Stuttgart once again demonstrated its home strength and dealt the struggling FC Augsburg the next setback. Thanks to goals from Maximilian Mittelstädt from a penalty kick (18th minute) and a brace from Deniz Undav (39th, 80th), the DFB Cup winners celebrated their fifth win in a row in their own stadium with the hard-fought 3:2 (2:2) and consolidated their fourth place in the Bundesliga after a mixed performance.
Despite a decent performance and two-time lead by Fabian Rieder (8th) and professional goal debutant Han-Noah Massengo (26th), the guests suffered their fourth competitive defeat in a row before the international break and remain in the bottom of the table. The pressure on FCA coach Sandro Wagner is likely to continue to increase, even though he currently enjoys the full backing of the club management.
Three days after the 2-0 win against Feyenoord Rotterdam in the Europa League, VfB coach Sebastian Hoeneß rotated his personnel again. He introduced four new players into the starting line-up in Dan-Axel Zagadou, captain Atakan Karazor, Jamie Leweling and Badredine Bouanani. At Augsburg, captain and central defender Jeffrey Gouweleeuw, who had recovered from a knee injury, was on the bench for the first time and was substituted on after just over an hour.
In front of 58,500 spectators, a varied game developed from the start, but was also characterized by individual mistakes on both sides. After VfB initially dominated the game, Augsburg somewhat surprisingly took the lead: after a long pass from Keven Schlotterbeck, Anton Kade beat the unfortunate Finn Jeltsch. After VfB goalkeeper Alexander Nübel parried two Augsburg shots, ex-Stuttgart Rieder scored to make it 0-1.
Less than ten minutes later, it was Schlotterbeck, of all people, who unnecessarily brought down Zagadou in the penalty area – Mittelstädt completed the penalty to equalize 1-1 for VfB, but he didn’t seem confident at all. In addition, the Augsburg team, who did not seem unsettled despite their recent defeats, did not allow themselves to be deterred – and VfB made a mistake again: After a risky pass from Nübel to Karazor on the edge of the penalty area, the 29-year-old lost the ball to Massengo, who made it 1-2.
But things continued wildly, this time again on the other side: Stiller brought the ball back into the game just before the goal line, Bilal El Khannouss crossed to Deniz Undav and his header to make it 2-2 was parried by the FCA goalkeeper just behind the goal line.
After the break, the Hoeneß team controlled the game, but initially hardly created any chances to score. The only danger was a free kick from Bouanani (49′) on the goal net. In contrast to the first half, the fans hardly saw any further goal area scenes in what was now a weak game. Only substitute Mbongu Essende caused a shocking moment for Stuttgart when he gave Augsburg a 3-2 lead while standing alone.
Then on the other side it was again the national player Undav, who was currently not taken into account for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers, who scored for the second time after an assist from Stiller and ensured the decision.