SC Freiburg
| 1-1 | Darida | (42. Min) |
VfB Stuttgart
| 0-1 | Harnik | (31. Min) |
| 1-2 | Gruezo | (52. Min) |
| 1-3 | Werner | (68. Min) |
| 1-4 | Harnik | (76. Min) |
Carlos Gruezo
Stefan Mitrovic
Stats 
Martin Harnik scored twice.
Derby run extended
On the back of three back-to-back league defeats, VfB opened the action on match day 13 with a 4-1 (1-1) win over SC Freiburg. The success for Huub Stevens’ men was their fourth consecutive Bundesliga win over Freiburg. The basis for the victory was set on efficient use of chances, a strong defensive performance and a little bit of luck in the first half.
Huub Stevens made four changes to the VfB starting eleven for his first game back on the trainer’s bench. Florian Klein and Carlos Gruezo replaced the suspended Daniel Schwaab and Oriol Romeu, with Sercan Sararer and Timo Werner getting the nod from the outset ahead of Filip Kostic and Daniel Ginczek. In front of a crowd of 24,000, the hosts made the better start, but VfB were solid in defence.
In the 31st minute, Stevens‘ men then took the lead. From a corner, Martin Harnick was quickest to react to a nod-on from Rüdiger and headed home from close range to make it 1-0 for VfB. The lead knocked the wind out of SC’s sails initially, with VfB looking in control, but before the break, the sides were back on level terms, when Vladimir Darida found the bottom left corner with a drive from distance – 1-1 (42’). Shortly before the break, the hosts had a double chance to get their noses in front. Firstly, Sven Ulreich parried a shot from Jonathan Schmid, and would have had no chance of stopping the follow-up, but luckily, Freiburg’s Felix Klaus could only drive the loose ball against the crossbar (44‘). The sides thus went into the break locked at 1-1.
Huub Stevens: "We won a game against a close competitor and that is something we can be very happy about. The win is good for our confidence! There is no reason for us to overly self-satisfied though."
Post match comments
Efficient attack
VfB made the brighter start to the second period, but although their first chance to hit on the break went a-begging, just shortly afterwards, the 2,300 fans from Cannstatt were off their feet and celebrating their team’s second goal. A shot from Christian Gentner was initially blocked by the SC defence, but Carlos Gruezo reacted quickest to the loose ball and fired an unstoppable drive home to make it 2-1 (52‘).
And VfB remained a threat, with Moritz Leitner getting a shot in, which Roman Bürki had to go full stretch for, to turn the ball over the bar. The midfielder was unlucky on that occasion, but in the 68th minute, Leitner proved provider for VfB’s third. Christian Gentner won possession and played to Leitner, who threaded a pass through for Timo Werner slot his shot between the legs of the advancing keeper and make it 3-1. The icing was then put on the cake by Martin Harnik, with his second of the night, to make the final score 4-1 (77‘). SC played the final twenty minutes with just ten men, after Stefan Mitrovic was dismissed for a professional foul, and VfB had no problem defending their advantage. The win sees Huub Stevens’ men initially move from bottom of the table into the relegation play-off spot, ahead of the Saturday and Sunday games.