Led by the strong Josha Vagnoman, VfB Stuttgart celebrated an immensely important success against Young Boys Bern. The hope for the round of 16 lives on after the 5:1 (1:1) on Wednesday evening. Vagnoman collected an assist on his 24th birthday and then scored himself.
Stuttgart ranks quite far down in the table of the reformed Champions League in 26th place. However, the gap to the play-off places is only one point. The next opponent for the Swabians is Slovan Bratislava on January 21st, and Paris St. Germain will come to Bad Cannstadt on the last league match day. According to their own calculations, VfB still needs at least one win from the two games.
“It was very liberating, we played a good game. In the second half we were fully there and didn’t give the opponent any breathing room”said the former Bernese Fabian Rieder.
The hosts found it difficult to get into the game. VfB Stuttgart had to chase a deficit early on. After Bern had pressed very aggressively from the start, Łukasz Łakomy had a free shot from the edge of the penalty area in the 6th minute. Alexander Nübel in the hosts’ box saw the ball extremely late and showed no reaction when the ball hit the goal to his left. In a touching gesture, the Bernese players gathered and held up a jersey of their teammate Meschack Elia, who lost one of his sons a few days before the game.
After a cold initial shower: Stuttgart is stabilizing
Not much later, the Swabians almost managed to equalize: After a remarkable dribble with two hooks in the style of a field hare, Emedin Demirović took a shot from the most acute angle, but chased the ball into the side netting. Similar in the 22nd minute: VfB followed up well offensively after losing the ball, Demirovic came free to finish at the penalty spot, but fell too far behind.
Stuttgart gained more and more access to the ball and opponents and increased their share of possession. With success, as Stuttgart cheered in the 26th minute: VfB tried Stiller through the middle, Vagnoman, who had moved up, completed the one-two with the playmaker on his 24th birthday, who shot well from six meters in the half-right penalty area Right eye hit the goal.
Until the half-time whistle, VfB remained the more active team, which always seemed to create good chances to score – but time and time again they lacked the precision for the final chance to score.
VfB wide awake after the break – VAR in focus
At the beginning of the second 45 minutes, Stuttgart picked up where it left off before the half-time whistle: Less than 30 seconds after the restart, Demirovic appeared again in the Bernese 16, but missed his chance to score.
But VfB didn’t let up – and were rewarded again. Ex-Bernese Fabian Rieder worked his way to the baseline on the right side. When Bern thought the ball was out of the net, the Stuttgart player continued playing and gave the ball sharply into the middle. Demirovic let the pass through so that Enzo Millot was optimally positioned in the middle for the ball and shot in to give the home team the lead (53′).
Vagnoman makes his own Birthday present
As a result, the referee team led by Georgian referee Giorgi Kruashvili took an extremely long time to recognize the regular goal. The situation was also explosive because the assistant referee saw the ball out of bounds and raised his flag. A little later, Chris Führich, who had worked a lot but had been quite unlucky up to that point, added a shot from a good 20 meters into the top right corner (61′).
Stuttgart’s Neckarstadion was turned upside down again when, less than six minutes later, Millot cut deep on the left and passed sharply inside. Vagnoman was there, who crowned his consistent defensive work and his courageous appearance in the game and made it 4-1.
YB had fallen apart: large spaces opened up more and more often, into which Yannik Keitel ran into in the 76th minute: Rieder’s pass again landed on the defensive player, who shot flatly from almost 25 meters and Bern’s keeper David von Ballmoos got the ball for the fifth time let him get out of the gate. It was the 24-year-old’s first competitive goal for VfB. Stuttgart celebrates an important victory against the reigning Swiss champions.