For the third game in succession, Bruno Labbadia sent out the same starting eleven but it took some time before the game began to take shape. Following some early haf chances at either end, VfB began to look more stable. Cacau, Serdar Tasci and Martin Harnik all had opportunities to open the scoring but, as fate would have it, it was to be the visitors who struck first blood. Michael Kadlec let fly from 25 meters out with a shot which Sven Ulreich could only parry and Stefan Kießling pounced on the loose ball to slot home and make it 1-0 for the visitors (28’). Shortly before the break, Bayer could have doubled their advantage, when Andre Schürrle weaved his way through three defenders and got a shot away, but this time Ulreich covered the danger and VfB went in at the break trailing by the odd goal.

 

No way back 

Similarly to the first period, the second half of the game took some time to find its flow. The first opening fell to Sidney Sam, who drove in a shot from 17 meters out which went narrowly wide of the upright. There was a similar fate at the other end for Christian Gentner with a shot from 18 meters out. In the 68th minutes, Harnik flashed a volley across the face of the goal which Cacau came agonizingly close to connecting with at the back post. Bruno Labbadia reacted with the introductions of Pavel Pogrebnyak and Shinji Okazaki, who almost became the VfB hero in the 72nd minute, getting a shot in which was turned away for a corner at the last minute. In the closing minutes, the home side threw all they could into attack but the 'Factory-Eleven' stood their ground and did only the necessary to hold on to all three points.