Despite the comfortable lead, Bundesliga club VfB Stuttgart will go into the relegation second leg against Hamburger SV with a warning.
The good starting position after the convincing 3-0 in the first leg is “just a milestone,” said coach Sebastian Hoeneß before the “final” in Hamburg on Monday (8:45 p.m. / Sat.1 and Sky): “The pressure is still there , because we have to confirm it in the second game.”
After the sovereign victory in the home game last Thursday, the fourth relegation after 1975, 2016 and 2019 for VfB seems as good as averted. However, it would be “fatal,” warned Hoeneß, “if we now deduce that the second leg will be like the first leg. We need a big lookout.”
Hoeneß expects his team to be “sharp, concentrated and focused just like in the first game”, precisely because HSV will “throw everything in”. The 41-year-old has to do without Fabian Bredlow again. The goalkeeper was “not at 100 percent” after an inner ligament strain, said Hoeneß, “then it’s impossible that you can play a game like Monday”.