VfB Stuttgart on Monday secured their Bundesliga status with a 3-1 victory at Hamburg SV (6-1 on aggregate) in the relegation playoff return leg, ensuring another season in the second division for the fallen giants.
Two second-half goals from French midfielder Enzo Millot and an stoppage-time strike from Silas overturned a 1-0 halftime deficit, ensuring that 16th-placed Stuttgart remain in the top division next season.
The loss means Hamburg, who once celebrated the longest run in the top division with a clock marking every second the former European Cup winners had not been relegated, would play a sixth season in Bundesliga 2.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Stuttgart manager Sebastian Hoeness, who has lost just one of 10 league matches since taking over in early April, lauded his team’s “ability to handle pressure.”
“Compliments to the team,” Hoeness said of securing first-tier soccer next season. “It sure didn’t look like that eight or nine weeks ago.”
His Hamburg counterpart Tim Walter, who coached Stuttgart for six months in 2019 before being sacked, lamented how close, but how far his side had been.
“We played a great season, 20 wins, but we were missing just one point,” Walter said. “We’re building something unbelievable here, I’m incredibly proud of my team, unfortunately the first-division side were a little bit better.”
Thrashed 3-0 in Thursday last week’s first leg, Hamburg gave their suffering supporters hope early on.
A stunning long-range strike from Sonny Kittel just seven minutes in gave the hosts the lead in front of a 57,000-strong home crowd.
Hamburg built and pushed in the hope of a second and breathed a sigh of relief after 16 minutes when a superb Serhou Guirassy backheeled goal was chalked off for offside.
Stuttgart struck early after halftime, the unmarked Millot firing in from close range.
Millot scored another midway through the second half, pouncing on a huge goalkeeping error from Daniel Heuer Fernandes, who miscued a punt on the edge of his penalty area, allowing the Frenchman to tap in.
Hamburg pushed to turn the tie, but Stuttgart scored again deep into stoppage-time, Silas adding a third to seal his side’s place in next season’s top division.
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