Union Berlin pushes VfB Stuttgart into the second league - and celebrates even the biggest success in the club's history. The Swabians were missing in the second leg of the relegation only one goal.
Union Berlin has prevailed in the relegation to the Bundesliga thanks to a 0: 0 in the second leg against VfB Stuttgart, celebrating the historic first promotion to the top flight. The first leg in Stuttgart was 2: 2 gone, Union is due to the more away goals won the winner.
With the redeeming final whistle the Union fans stormed the place and started the big celebration party. Union President, Dirk Zingler, wept unrestrained, successful coach Urs Fischer immediately received a beer shower.
"I've been in the club for 40 years and I've been waiting for that for a long time," said Zingler.
VfB sports director, Thomas Hitzlsperger, slapped his hands over his face. "It's been brutally disappointing, things have gone a lot wrong this season, we've changed three coaches and it has not been enough in the end", said Hitzlsperger, interim coach Nico Willig spoke of" low point".
Despite long superiority in the atmospheric and thrilling game in the second division, the Bundesliga 16 waited for Stuttgart in vain on the much-needed away goal.
This is how the game went:
VfB coach, Nico Willig, changed his starting lineup to 2-2 in the first leg on four positions. The last red-blocked Santiago Ascacibar, the two former internationals Dennis Aogo and Holger Badstuber and Steven Zuber moved into the team. The battered Daniel Didavi, Gonzalo Castro and Emiliano Insua were initially on the bench, Marc Oliver Kempf was not in the squad.
In the absence of Union captain, Christopher Trimmel, who was yellow-locked, he was replaced by Julian Ryerson. After the yellow card suspension Florian Hübner moved into the center of defense instead of Michael Parensen.
Union has post-bad luck
The game started turbulently. First, Stuttgart's Ozan Kabak failed after a corner from close range (4th). Then Dennis Aogo converted a free kick from the penalty area to the supposed 1-0 for the VfB. However, the goal did not count because his teammate Nicolas Gonzalez was on the offside and as a result obstructed the view of Union keeper Rafal Gikiewicz.
In the 20th minute, the guests had to survive a moment of shock. Ozan Kabak was bleeding and had to be treated longer after he collided with neighbor Badstuber. Both center-backs were finally able to continue - but only with a turban. The unfortunate clash was symbolic, Stuttgart acted more cautious, had trouble in the game and allowed itself many play errors.
The game developed into a tough one. The VfB dominated clearly, came against extremely defensive acting Berlin but no longer to scoring chances. Union's Suleiman Abdullahi became much more dangerous, but the Nigerian failed after a promising counterattack (64./66).
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