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.
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
The Minnesota Timberwolves, with so many promising performances spoiled by late mistakes fresh in their memory bank, sure timed this strong finish well. Jaden McDaniels scored a career playoff-high 30 points and spearheaded Minnesota’s stifling defense on an ailing Luka Doncic, and the Timberwolves beat the Los Angeles Lakers 116-104 to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference first-round series in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Friday night. “Jaden never looks tired. He looks like he could play 48 minutes,” said teammate Anthony Edwards, who had 29 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. Julius Randle added 22 points for the Wolves, who outscored
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
RSS