VfB Stuttgart
| 1-0 | Gentner | (7. Min) |
| 2-1 | Ibisevic | (84. Min) |
Eintracht Frankfurt
| 1-1 | Meier | (67. Min) |
Cristian Molinaro
Stats 
First home win secured
In a tough ninety minute battle against Eintracht Frankfurt, VfB earned a hard fought out 2-1 win. The goals were scored by Christian Gentner and Vedad Ibisevic, with Alexander Meier intermittently equalizing for the visitors.
Bruno Labbadia began with the same eleven that started on Thursday in the Europa League. On the opposition team, captain Pirmin Schwegler was forced to pull out shortly before the kick-off and was replaced by former VfB man Martin Harnik.
VfB’s perfect start
With just six minutes on the clock, Christian Gentner was joined in celebration by Ibrahima Traoré. The Guinean international had put in a cross to the centre for Gentner to get on the end of and give the hosts and early lead. In spite of the early setback, the visitors from Frankfurt were equally active in getting forward and the 54,840 strong crowd, all wrapped up against the sudden wintry temperature in the Mercedes-Benz Arena, had plenty of action to keep them entertained.
In the 34th minute, the VfB fateful were up off their seats and cheering again, but Martin Harnik’s goal was cancelled out for off-side. Shortly before half-time, the Austrian had the ball in the back of the Eintracht net once again, but the referee had already long since blown for offside and as a result, VfB took their narrow lead into the break.
VfB head-coach Bruno Labbadia: “Today we had the luck on our side that we had been missing in recent weeks.” Post match comments
End-to-end
The home side began the second period just as actively as they had the first. Just seconds into the half, Martin Harnik took on a pass from Gentner, dodged inside his marker and let fly, only to see his shot ricochet away off the post. Although Harnik & Co. were in control, the visitors had made the trip as second placed team in the table and continually looked to hit on the break. One such counter attack saw Sven Ulreich called into action to stop a shot from distance by Stefan Aigner. Kevin Trapp in the Frankfurt goal was also kept well occupied, particularly when a Wiliiam Kvist corner fell to Serdar Tasci, who let fly immediately but the keeper was down extremely quickly to deny the defender.
Then at the opposite end again, in the 67th minute, Alexander Meier took possession on the edge of the VfB box and curled the ball expertly out of the reach of Ulreich into the far corner of the net to put his side back on level terms - 1-1.
Ibisevic seals the points
VfB went in immediate search of the lead again, and thought they had taken it once again as Ibisevic netted, but again the lines-man’s flag was to cut the celebrations short (80’). Soon after though, the celebrations were to prove justified, as the Bosnian rose to meet a perfect delivery from Harnik to head home powerfully and make it 2-1 (84’).
With the game drawing to a close, the visitors also thought they had equalized, but a flag for an offside was to deny Eintracht too. At the very death, Sven Ulreich proved once again that he is one of Germany’s very best, getting down quickly to deny Karim Matmour and resue VfB’s first home win of the season as Bruno Labbadia’s men move into eighth place.
