Second game, first damper: VfB Stuttgart has given the Europa League a perfect start in the Ligaphase of the Europa League. Despite clear superiority, the team of coach Sebastian Hoeneß was defeated by FC Basel 0: 2 (0: 1), and captain Ermedin Demirovic gave a penalty (36.) before the eyes of ex-national coach Joachim Löw.
“We play on a goal, have flanks over flanks, have breakthroughs through breakthroughs and collect two goals where nobody knows why,” said Demirovic. In the end he added to RTL, “we hit the things ourselves, shoot a penalty, I can’t really say why we lost it.”
VfB fell behind by Albian Ajeti early (3rd), was mostly game -determining afterwards, but remained susceptible to counterattacks of the Swiss who had lost at SC Freiburg last week (1-2).
The former Bundesliga professional Marwin Hitz not only parried Demirovic’s penalty, but other good opportunities of VfB, who often scored on goal – but not exactly enough. Basel’s German striker Moritz Broschinski (84th) scored 2-0.
The guidance of the hosts sprang from Lorenz Assignon, one of five new ones at VfB compared to the 2-1 at 1. FC Köln. The ball landed in the course of Ajeti, who shot freely in front of Nübel to the Stuttgart goalkeeper. The guests reacted well, but were lucky a quarter of an hour later that Koba Koindredi only hit the post (18th).
Video: bad error chain! VfB defense in deep sleep
VfB Stuttgart desperately on ex-BVB keeper
Stuttgart nevertheless determined the game and came to opportunities. First Demirovic put a header over the goal (27th). Shortly afterwards and after an almost two-minute waiting time because of the Var check, he awarded the penalty to Tiago Tomás. Hitz, formerly at FC Augsburg and at Borussia Dortmund, dived in the right corner.
Video: Demirovic Verballert Stuttgart’s 911 against Basel
After several moments of terror at the end of the first half, VfB continued to compensate for the equalization after the break, but was often too imprecise in its actions – the last crucial pass was not important. The numerous attempts at the shot were also rarely dangerous: Assignon chased a shot on the outside network (50th).
VfB scored a total of 31 times on the Basler goal – but last but not least, Hot remained a strong backing of his team: Among other things, he parried a header from Chema Andrés (58th) or the great chance of Tiago Tomás (81st), most shots or the numerous flanks, but no problems caused him. The broschinski, who came from Bochum, finally made everything clear at the presentation of the strong former Munich Xherdan Shaqiri.