After victories over Sandhausen (6-1), followed by Hamburger SV (3-2) and Arminia Bielefeld (2-0) in the Helden Cup and a 3-0 loss at the hands of Premier League champions Liverpool, VfB had their fifth and final match of the pre-season on Saturday at the Robert-Schlienz-Stadion when they took on French Ligue 1 side Racing Strasbourg.
The hosts were 2-1 down after a frantic opening quarter-of-an-hour. Strasbourg twice took the lead, through Ludovic Ajorque (8’) and then Adrien Thomasson (14’), with Nicolas Gonzalez equalising in between in the 10th minute. Just before the break, a spectacular Daniel Didavi shot from distance made it 2-2. VfB then came out strong in the second half, and goals from Wataru Endo (52’) and Sasa Kalajdzic (55’) gave them a well-earned 4-2 win.
After five weeks of pre-season preparations, the 2020/21 season will get under way in earnest next weekend with the first round of the DFB Cup. The lads from Cannstatt will travel to F.C. Hansa Rostock on Sunday 13 September (kick-off: 15:30 CEST).
Pellegrino Matarazzo: "We couldn’t get into the match in the first 30 minutes. Strasbourg did really well and didn’t give us any space. After the change of ends, we got into the game a lot more and created some good chances in the second half, scoring some nice goals. At the end of the day, it was a good warm-up match. We’re on the right track and we’ll carry on working hard."
Line-up
1 Kobel (33 Bredlow, 46')
2 Anton
3 Endo (36 Mack, 67')
4 Kempf (35 Kaminski, 34')
7 Coulibaly (29 Cissé, 67')
8 Castro (C)
10 Didavi (18 Al Ghaddioui, 60')
14 Wamangituka
15 Stenzel (16 Karazor, 67')
21 Klement
22 Gonzalez (9 Kalajdzic, 41')
Goals
0-1 Ludovic Ajorque (8‘)
1-1 Nicolas Gonzalez (10‘)
1-2 Adrien Thomasson (14‘)
2-2 Daniel Didavi (37‘)
3-2 Wataru Endo (52‘)
4-2 Kalajdzic (55‘)