Borussia catch VfB cold

The tension and anxiousness within both teams was clear to see early on in the game as an abundance of misplaced passes disrupted attempts from both sides to push forward and Bruno Labbadia’s men clearly had problems creating openings. VfB were in control early on but then, in the 27th minute, Igor de Camargo took on a pass from Mo Idrissou, jinked past his marker and let fly, luckily for VfB, the Brazilian couldn’t control his shot and missed the target. Two minutes later though, Sven Ulreich was left fishing the ball out of his net. Reus swung in a corner which Dante met powerfully to put his side in front. VfB were still recovering from the shock but suddenly found themselves two goals down. Patrick Funk cheaply lost the ball to Mo Idrissou, who played through to Reus. The German international in turn picked out Reus, who slotted home to make it 2-0 for the home side – a clear lead which they were to take into the break. To rub salt in VfB’s wounds, after just 14 minutes, Timo Gebhart was yellow carded for a dive in the Borussia penalty area. It was the 21 year olds fifth booking, which means he will miss out against Nürnberg next weekend.

VfB bouce back 

In the second half of the game, Georg Niedermeier received his fifth yellow of the campaign, ensuring the centre half will also be unavailable next weekend – but by that stage it was 2-2! VfB looked like a completely different team as they came out after the break – both mentally as well as physically. Tamas Hajnal made his Stuttgart debut, as the form was switched to a 4-3-3, with the new man slotting in behind the strikers – who were to prove the turning point in a nail-biting finish. In thw 51st minute, a deflected cross from Martin Harnik fell to Pavel Pogrebnyak, who shot on the volley to make it 2-1. Five minutes later, the Russian flicked a back-heeled pass to Arthur Boka who set up Martin Harnik to level the scores.