DFB Cup: Stuttgart fights against Augsburg in the semi -finals

At some point, the activities of the trainers differ only marginally. Stuttgart’s Sebastian Hoeneß and Augsburg’s Jess Thorup were quiet on the edge of the field before spreading their arms at the same time and brought together in a liquid movement in front of their bodies. What looked like a bond on the synchronous swimming also depicted the balanced and tedious struggle of her teams.

At the end of the late Tuesday evening, Hoeneß was allowed to tear his arms up to celebrate the move into the semi-finals of the DFB Cup. With 1-0 (1-0), his team had won from Deniz Undav from the 30th minute thanks to the goal, the three -time cup winner VfB Stuttgart were only missing two victories for winning the title.

The game for VfB had stood on the agenda at an unfavorable time. The three defeats against Mainz (0: 2), Paris Saint-Germain (1: 4) and Mönchengladbach (1: 2) were as unsightly series behind the Stuttgart. This was accompanied by the end of the Champions League and a drop in mood that Hoeneß felt too drastically. “Eight days ago we were world champions, now we are lifeguards,” he had warned the inappropriate exaggeration.

In the game, it actually looked like some were out of his workforce in flip -flops. Uncertainties in the ball lead and in the passing game were unmistakable, which resulted in numerous ball losses and counterattacks by the Augsburg. But the guests didn’t really get dangerous.

For Thorup’s team, this Swabian comparison could hardly have come at a better time. She had recently strung three victories and a draw together and thus encouraged hope to move into the semi -finals for the second time after 2010. But from the middle of the first half, the game looked more like most Augsburg cup games in recent years. The FCA had regularly said goodbye to the first or second round.

Augsburg missed in the good initial phase to develop goal risk

This time it was because the Stuttgart first gained security and then at determination. At a first big chance through Undav after Angelos Stiller’s pretty steep pass, Augsburg’s goalkeeper Nediljko Labrovic was still in the way. But shortly afterwards Undav was successful. The attacker met through the legs of central defender Keven Schlotterbeck after Frank Onyeka had failed and the former Augsburg Himbed Demirovic had served the goal scorer.

Already at the 1-0 league victory in Augsburg at the beginning of the year, Undav, at that time after his change. This time, too, the German striker provided evidence of his special qualities in the end. His colleague Chris Führich could have used a little more of these skills shortly before the break whistle when he ran towards the Augsburg goal, but only hit the outer post with his left -wing shot from an acute angle.

At their good start, the Augsburgers missed it with many balls to plunge the initially recognizably uncertain Stuttgart into even larger laying. The attack efforts got too tentatively, not even a few silliness on the edge of the pool allowed the FCA kickers with the supposed Stuttgart bathing maker. And so in the intermediate balance of the first half there was a harmless header from Phillip Tietz as the only relevant goal approach.

In the second round, the Augsburgers tried more train to the goal, and in some phases they even managed to act significantly. But it only really got into the VfB goal for Alexander Nübel when the substitute Mert Kömür sent the ball with his right-hand shot from around 25 meters towards Winkel and forced Nübel to fly. Later, the 19 -year -old Kömür from a lower distance and more gentle with the inside tried, but again Nübel was on the spot.