Stuttgart couldn’t take their DFB Pokal form into the Bundesliga as Werder Bremen came away with all three points in Sunday’s opening Bundesliga match.
The home side started the better of the two sides but the travelling Bremen side kicked into action before the break and turned that pressure into goals in the second period through Jens Stage and Marvin Ducksch.
The win takes Bremen up to 8th in the table while Stuttgart drop to 16th place after VfL Bochum’s 5-2 victory on Saturday against Hoffenheim.
Jens Stage opened the scoring just before the hour mark with a beautiful strike into the top corner and then a mistake by Konstantinos Mavropanos led to Ducksch receiving the ball just outside the box and curling an effort past the despairing Florian Muller.
Jens finally takes centre Stage
Werder Bremen signed Stage from Copenhagen in the summer as a box-to-box midfielder and the 26-year-old has had a solid start to his career at the Weserstadion but today’s opener was the first goal the Dane has scored this season for his new team.
The Danish International hasn’t had much game time this season due to injury, only starting eight games so far but he has been key to Bremen’s success in their last two victories over Stuttgart and Wolfsburg last weekend.
The all action midfielder was up and down the pitch all afternoon with Christian Groß protecting the back three and Niklas Schmidt providing for the front men.
He came off in added time to a great reception from the travelling fans who recognised his strong performance.
Coach Ole Werner will be hoping this performance is one that will kick-start his career at the River Islanders as they try and push higher up the Bundesliga table.
Werder Bremen get over their away concerns
Bremen have struggled when travelling away from the Weserstadion of late with massive defeats in their last two away trips against Köln and Bayern Munich.
They shipped a combined 13 goals in those two games and many thought they might struggle once again against a fighting Stuttgart side, but this wasn’t the case.
Werner set up his side perfectly to soak up pressure and break quickly, which was how their two goals came about.
They had a solid foundation with Amos Pieper, Niklas Stark and Marco Friedl in defence, protected by the evergreen Groß.
2013 was the last time Bremen had won away at the Mercedes Benz Arena, demonstrating how impressive today’s display was.
Stuttgart cannot buy a home clean sheet
Stuttgart have now went 31 home games without a clean sheet in the Bundesliga, which is a new league record.
This may surprise many casual fans as defenders Waldemar Anton, Hiroki Ito and especially Mavropanos are highly thought off.
The afore mentioned Greek international was actually at fault for the second goal, which killed the home side off as they tried to push for an equaliser.
The 25-year-old cleared straight to Niklas Füllkrug who set up Ducksch to finish expertly.
Stuttgart had always played a back three under previous coach Pellegrino Matarazzo, which seemed to get the best out of wing-backs such as Borna Sosa but the swashbuckling style led to goals being conceded.
Bruno Labbadia has came in and changed the formation to have four at the back but individual errors are still costing his side goals and points.
There is also still question marks over goalkeeper Muller, who wasn’t at fault for any of today’s goals but has been prior to this afternoon’s match.
Serhou Guirassy a big miss for Stuttgart
The Frenchman came off in the 25th minute with a suspected groin injury and this substitution change the flow of the game completely.
Before the striker came off the home side were the team pressing and controlling the ball but after the 26-year-old came off they lost the control they had in the match up until that point.
Serhou Guirassy is Stuttgart’s top goal scorer this season with six goals so far meaning his absence in future weeks will be a huge miss for the side fighting against relegation.
His replacement Luca Pfieffer is still waiting for his first goal of the season and when he came on he struggled to get into the game and didn’t cause the same concerns for Stark and co in the Bremen defence as Guirassy did.
With Stuttgart now sitting in the relegation play-off space they will be hoping the injury to their top-scorer isn’t as bad as first thought as they try and stave off relegation.
