German Europa League representatives VfB Stuttgart find themselves in precisely the same position as they did at the beginning of the month. Another fine Europa League performance once again yielded no goals and no points. Stuttgart may currently be placed third in the Bundesliga table, but simply cannot gain traction in the UEL.
Head coach Sebastian Hoeneß’ Württemberger travelled to Turkey on Thursday evening to face Fenerbahçe, ultimately losing 1-0 away against German head coach Domenico Tedesco’s squad. A messy match featuring 11 yellow cards ended up being decided by a 34th-minute penalty awarded to the hosts.
Though the German guests could have griped about the fact that they too should have been awarded a penalty in the 68th-minute, most of the post-match talk centered around the fact that the team couldn’t make the most of its scoring opportunities
“It’s bitter that we have nothing to show for this game,” Hoeneß remarked at the post match press conference. “My young team played very courageously today, but in the end you need goals to take points. It was similar to our last game against Basel.”
”We didn’t play badly,” midfielder Angelo Stiller added the mixed zone. “‘Fener’ had little control, but we had little impact. In the end, only the win counts; we want to get points. So this wasn’t progress, but a step backwards.”
