VfB Stuttgart
| 1-0 | Traoré | (51. Min) |
1. FC Nürnberg
| 1-1 | Feulner | (77. Min) |
Mu Kanazaki
Stats 
brahima Traoré
So close
VfB dominated against 1. FC Nürnberg on match day 23 and eventually took the lead through Ibrahima Traoré but the ‘Club’ bounced back with an equaliser to make the final score 1-1 (0-0).
Bruno Labbadia made three changes to the side with began in Genk, with Georg Niedermeier, Cristian Molinaro and Raphael Holzhauser returning to the starting eleven in place of Antonio Rüdiger, Arthur Boka and Shinji Okazaki.
Taking the momentum from the game in Belgium, VfB made a bright start and had their first chance on goal after twelve minutes when Martin Harnik headed goal-wards from a Gotoku Sakai delivery but was unsuccessful. As the half progressed, chances on goal became ever more a rarity, with Christian Gentner once managing to test Raphael Schäfer in the 23rd minute.
In the 26th and then ten minutes later, Austrian international Harnik tried his luck again but was unable to find the target and with neither side really able to test the opposition keeper again in the first 45 minutes, the teams went into the break dead-locked at 0-0.
VfB take the lead…but tire!
The second period was a mere six minutes old when the VfB fans were on their feet and celebrating! Martin Harnik went on an impressive solo run and fired on goal, but had his shot deflected away by the trailing foot of Schäfer. Luckily for VfB, the loose ball fell to Ibrahim Traoré, who made no mistakes in slamming into the empty net to make it 1-0 (51’).
Just two minutes later, VfB had some fortune on their side when William Kvist flung himself into the path of a shot in the home side’s penalty are and the ball struck the Dane on the hand, but the referee was unimpressed by the visitor’s pleas for a spot-kick.
VfB goal-scorer Ibrahima Traoré: "That wasn’t ideal – we could have won that one! It was difficult to be involved in a game at Bundesliga level so soon after a Europa League game." Post match comments
The bulk of the 46,570 strong crowd gasped for breath just past the hour mark when Sebastian Polter flicked on a Kiyotake delivery, but the ball landed on top of the VfB net. With less than a quarter hour to go, VfB’s superiority began to wane and Markus Feulner took his chance well in firing past Ulreich into the bottom left corner to make it 1-1 (77’).
With time running out, Wiliam Kvist took on a pass from Gentner and drove a shot goal-wards, but the effort zipped narrowly over the crossbar and VfB were left to settle for just a share of the spoils when all three points had looked far more likely for most of the game.
