Right from the outset, the VfB fans at the Mercedes-Benz Arena saw their side approach the game in highly motivated fashion. The home side made the early running, with the visitors from the capital finding it very difficult to get any grip on the game. There were chances for Christian Gentner and Martin Harnik before Ibisevic eventually broke the deadlock in the 24th minute. The winter signing finished off a move put together by Niedermeier and Hajnal, got slam the ball home with a flying scissors kick. Just four minutes later, the Bosnian was in action again, this time slotting a pass through to Harnik, who controlled the ball perfectly and slotted home to make it 2-0.

On the half-hour mark, the task for the guests was to become an even greater one, when Andreas Ottl lunged at Tamas Hajnal and was duly shown the red card. VfB had no sympathy for the weakened opponents and increased their lead to 3-0 in the 32nd minute, with Shinji Okazaki stealing in to head home. And Labbadia’s men hadn’t quite finished! With half time approaching, Martin Harnik picked out the far corner to make it 4-0 for VfB going into the break.

Harnik completes his hat-trick

After the re-start, VfB appeared to drop a gear and put Berlin under decidedly less pressure but still managed to create openings – such as through Okazaki and fellow countryman Sakai who both tested Michael Kraft in the Hertha goal.

Just short of the hour though, VfB Stuttgart were celebrating again, and once again Martin Harnik was the goal scorer, following a neatly played one-two with Okazaki. With the game progressing into its latter stages, there was little more real need for VfB to force the issue and the tempo of play was also affected by a number of substitutions.