VfB Stuttgart has to go into the playoffs to reach the round of 16 of the Europa League. After the win against Bern there was no big celebration – now it’s off to Scotland or Bulgaria.
Everything was actually set up for a big victory party. With a goal from Spaniard Chema in the 90th minute, VfB Stuttgart defeated the Young Boys Bern team 3-2 and thus did his homework in the fight for a place in the round of 16 of the Europa League. However, since the results on the other pitches were not in favor of the Swabians, the celebration after the final whistle was rather muted. With 15 points, VfB Stuttgart finished the league phase of the Europa League in 11th place.
“There were a bit of mixed feelings. It’s obviously nice that we won. But it’s a shame that we couldn’t qualify directly and have to go to the playoffs,” Atakan Karazor told SWR Sport late on Thursday evening.
Atakan Karazor: “We thought it would happen on its own”
The mixed feelings not only affected the table situation in the Europa League, but also the way the 3-2 win against Bern came about. Deniz Undav (6th minute) and Ermedin Demirovic (7th) gave VfB the lead early with a double strike, and there were also great chances for the third goal. But shortly before the break, the guests scored again through Armin Gigovic and even equalized in the 57th minute through Sandro Lauper. A game that seemed to have been decided early on was completely open again.
“The first half hour looked really good. Maybe we then thought that it would work itself out. But this is the Europa League and this thought simply cannot occur to us. We have to be careful that it doesn’t happen to us in the future,” said Karazor, who came into the game in the 68th minute for Angelo Stiller. A move worth seeing led to Chema scoring the winning goal in the end.
VfB Stuttgart meets Celtic Glasgow – and has SC Freiburg in its sights
In the playoffs to qualify for the round of 16 of the Europa League, VfB Stuttgart will now face Celtic Glasgow from Scotland. The games will take place on February 19th and 26th. First we go to Celtic Park, a week later VfB welcomes the Scots to their home stadium in Stuttgart. But the focus of coach Sebastian Hoeneß’s team is initially on the Bundesliga home game on Sunday (3:30 p.m. / live in the audio stream on sportschau.de) against SC Freiburg.
“This is an opponent who never gives up, who always accelerates – no matter what the situation is,” said Atakan Karazor about the Breisgau team. And alluded to the fact that VfB cannot afford a weaker phase like against Bern when the sports club comes to Stuttgart.
