Matchday 16 - VfB goes into the break with a club record
Thanks to its goal-scoring duo of Serhou Guirassy and Deniz Undav, VfB Stuttgart successfully rounded off its successful soccer year with a club record.
A good six months after being relegated, the Swabians overtook RB Leipzig with a 3:0 (2:0) win against FC Augsburg to go into the Christmas break in third place.
Undav (18th minute), Guirassy (45.+1) and Chris Führich (69th) led the hosts to their eleventh win of the first half of the season, which does not end until January. Stuttgart have never had so many wins in the first half of the Bundesliga season - not even in 1991/92, when they became German champions.
The fact that VfB already have more points (34) than at the end of the entire previous season (33) underlines their impressive development. At the beginning of June, the Swabians avoided a debacle in the relegation play-off against Hamburger SV.
FCA winless again
FCA conceded their second defeat under coach Jess Thorup in December and remained winless for the third game in a row, but wintered with a reassuring lead over the relegation zone.
After the sobering 3-0 flop at FC Bayern last Sunday, VfB coach Sebastian Hoeneß had hoped for a reaction from his eleven - and in front of 53,600 spectators they got to see a highly deserved success against harmless Augsburg. The hosts clearly controlled the game.
The unusually quiet stadium atmosphere, in which the fans continued their protest against the investor plans of the German Football League (DFL) with twelve minutes of restraint, had just ended when the spectators were able to watch dangerous scenes from Undav: First he failed to hit the post after a one-two with Guirassy (13).
Just a few minutes later, things went better and Undav was delighted to make it 1-0 with his assist from Angelo Stiller: a half-height corner from his team-mate reached the free-standing Undav in the five-yard box and the ball flew into the net from the inside of the post. Augsburg conceded at least one goal for the 19th Bundesliga match in a row. And that was not to be the end of the story against the surprise team of the season so far.
17th goal of the season for Guirassy
Undav's strike partner Guirassy initially struggled when Jamie Leweling tried in vain - instead of playing to him (34'). The Swabians' top scorer then missed a great chance to score after Augsburg goalkeeper Finn Dahmen had his shot deflected away again. However, Guirassy then ran straight at Dahmen after being played in by Undav and took the opportunity to score his 17th Bundesliga goal of the season. Before the game, there had already been speculation as to whether the sought-after striker might play his last game for VfB against Augsburg and move on during the winter break. He was cheered again at the end of the year.
The visitors didn't manage much and didn't make it particularly difficult for VfB. VfB goalkeeper Alexander Nübel had a quiet evening, especially in the first half. That changed promptly after the break when he deflected a long-range shot from Ermedin Demirovic over the crossbar (48'). Philip Tietz's header was not placed enough (67') to really challenge him.
At the other end, Führich made everything clear with a direct shot after a superb pass from Stiller. The hosts could have won even more if they had had more chances - Atakan Karazor's shot hit the crossbar with a quarter of an hour to go.
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Source: www.stern.de
