{"id":565997,"date":"2026-04-05T12:40:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T12:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/565997\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T12:40:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T12:40:15","slug":"the-late-late-show-in-stuttgart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/565997\/","title":{"rendered":"The late, late show in Stuttgart"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the fourth and sixth minutes of stoppage time, a BVB side that had been inexplicably quiet in attack up to that point created their first two chances of the match and converted both, once again demonstrating outstanding efficiency to secure a 2-0 victory away at VfB Stuttgart. \u201cThat\u2019s a quality in itself. A remarkable quality, in fact,\u201d said Sky pundit Wolff Fuss as he left the stadium. BVB scored in stoppage time for the sixth and seventh time this season, meaning they have secured a total of eight points late on in games. They are clinical and have the belief that anything is still possible!<\/p>\n

Sky expert and record-breaking international Lothar Matth\u00e4us went even further in his assessment, putting the development down to one person: \u201cI think that BVB can be proud of this Bundesliga season and proud of these 13 or 14 months with Niko Kovac. How they extricated themselves from the situation and sensationally achieved a minimal target last year.\u201d And now they have successfully fended off a challenge from a rival for second place, consolidating their position in the table with an 11-point lead. \u201cHis tactics have worked brilliantly again today,\u201d said Matth\u00e4us about Kovac, adding: \u201cAlways keep a clean sheet first.\u201d They have now managed that 13 times this season!<\/p>\n

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\u201cAll in all, we\u2019re having a really good season,\u201d said Kovac, who had previously spoken very clearly about his team\u2019s shortcomings in the match against VfB \u2013 as can be read here in the post-match comments<\/a>. He went on to say: \u201cLast season, we were 25 points behind Bayern Munich, and I think 13 points behind Leverkusen. We\u2019re not finished yet as we\u2019ve still got a few points to pick up, and that\u2019s what we want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The team is showing hunger, even if Saturday\u2019s performance in Stuttgart wasn\u2019t what fans, officials and players had expected. After the 14-day international break, Gregor Kobel suggested one possible reason: \u201cI don\u2019t know if it\u2019s down to the international break, where you play different systems and need a bit of time to settle back in here.\u201d The keeper said he was delighted with the two late goals: \u201cWe knew they were vulnerable to counter-attacks.\u201d Karim Adeyemi (90+4) and Julian Brandt (90+6) struck in the closing minutes as VfB had all their attacking players on the pitch and went all out.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat sucker punch could have gone either way,\u201d said Marcel Sabitzer, adding: \u201cWe defended with real passion. And then we played two good counter-attacks and scored some fine goals. It was a bit lucky, but we\u2019re happy to take it in the end.\u201d Kobel put it in similar terms: \u201cWe took our chances ruthlessly. In the end, it\u2019s three points away from home against a very good opponent in a difficult match.\u201d<\/p>\n

Julian Brandt was delighted with the spark the substitutes brought to the game. \u201cKarim scores the goal as a substitute, I score my goal as a substitute and Fabio provides an assist as a substitute.\u201d 14 of the 60 goals this season \u2013 almost one in four \u2013 have been scored by substitutes. No other team comes anywhere near this figure. Sabitzer summed it up: \u201cIf you run a lot and tire the opposition out, you need a few fresh legs coming on. And we have that quality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boris Rupert<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the fourth and sixth minutes of stoppage time, a BVB side that had been inexplicably quiet in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":565998,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[4897,250302,195802,250301,250305,250303,195806,72698,250304,403,99,18331,63370],"class_list":{"0":"post-565997","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-bayern-munich","9":"tag-bvb","10":"tag-gregor-kobel","11":"tag-julian-brandt","12":"tag-karim-adeyemi","13":"tag-lothar-matthaus","14":"tag-marcel-sabitzer","15":"tag-niko-kovac","16":"tag-remarkable-quality","17":"tag-soccer","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-stuttgart","20":"tag-vfb-stuttgart"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=565997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=565997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=565997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=565997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}