This is exactly how VfB Stuttgart recovered from the defeat against TSG Hoffenheim – thanks to Ermedin Demirovic and a large portion of luck. After the “perceived victory” on Sunday, the Swabians want to show a different face in the future.
Celebrated hero: Ermedin Demirovic secured Stuttgart’s late point win.
IMAGO/Sportfoto Rudel
The fact that VfB Stuttgart can and wants to play good offensive football in the new season was recently made clear, especially in the 5-1 gala against Borussia Dortmund. However, when the Swabians face low-lying, disciplined, defending opponents like TSG Hoffenheim (opponents this Sunday evening), it becomes clear that the team has lost a little of its coolness.
Despite a dominant style of play for long stretches, the Stuttgart team gritted their teeth against TSG, and Sebastian Hoeneß’s team only managed to score a point thanks to a late hand penalty and a lot of luck.
“In the end it feels like a victory when you equalize after all the work,” explained goal scorer Ermedin Demirovic DAZN. “Of course we’ll take a point like that, even if we clearly wanted to win.” He openly admitted that Fortuna proved to be kind to his goal, which he scored after a missed penalty shot: “I’m lucky that the ball falls in front of my foot.”
TSG keeper Oliver Baumann saved the penalty (“He shoots too badly”), but deflected it at the feet of the miss. “We were still talking today about how Oli almost always has the corner. I actually wanted to shoot over the supporting leg, then I think: ‘Okay, if he has the corner so often, I’ll shoot into the other corner’. He has me Read well, then I’m lucky that the ball comes back like that and I can still score the goal.”
Demirovic: “It’s about tackling games dirty sometimes”
Demirovic then joked with Baumann on the pitch, but also had more serious words after the game. Although VfB was “on the right track” despite only nine points from the first six games, there was once again a lack of clear situations.
Demirovic therefore demanded: “We have to be more forceful on the flanks, with more men in the box. Basically, it’s more of an issue to sometimes approach games dirty; sometimes to win the game dirty. We have to try to do it sometimes Standard – like with the penalty today – we dominate many teams, the little bit of luck comes with time.”
