Thorsten Kirschbaum and Go Sakai.

Control and success

VfB Stuttgart notched up their first win of the season against Hannover 96. Trainer Armin Veh’s men controlled proceedings over the duration against defensive guests and deservedly won out 1-0. Central defender Daniel Schwaab earned the three points with his first goal for the club.

Armin Veh made just one change to his starting eleven for the clash with Hannover 96. Somewhat unexpectedly, Sven Ulreich was replaced between the posts by Thorsten Kirschbaum. Another unexpected alteration was that the ‘Cannstatt Boys’ didn’t take to the pitch at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in their usual white home kit, but instead wore the red shirts with which they earned a point in Dortmund.

As the coach had signalled before the game, VfB began somewhat more attacking as they had been against BVB in midweek. When the hosts took possession, Hannover quickly drew back deep into their own half, closing the operating space down with two defensive lines, leaving striker Joselu to fend for himself up front. VfB launched their first real attack on goal after 14 minutes, with Florian Klein, Daniel Didavi and Christian Gentner combining to provide a cross for Timo Werner, but the H96 defence snapped closed quickly. There were further openings for Gotoku Sakai (20’), Moritz Leitner (35’) and Christian Gentner (37’) all went close. At the other end, Hannover tied their luck from distance on a couple of occasions, but efforts from Hiroshi Kiyotake (21’) and Manuel Schmiedebach (43’) failed to test Kirschbaum, leading to the game going into the break locked in stalemate.