News (engl.)

VfB Stuttgart are the first team through to the semi-finals of the 2024/25 DFB-Pokal. The Swabians narrowly beat fellow Bundesliga side FC Augsburg 1-0 on Tuesday night to secure a place in the final four for the twelfth time. Deniz Undav scored the game’s only goal after half an hour.

Augsburg had the better opening period of the sides, controlling more of the possession and breaking up Stuttgart’s build-up play with good, aggressive pressing right up to their opponents’ penalty area. However, FCA struggled to forge clear-cut chances. Instead, it was the hosts who had the first real opening of the match. Deniz Undav chested down a brilliant dinked ball over the defence by Angelo Stiller, but he was unable to squeeze his shot past goalkeeper Nediljko Labrovic from the angle (26’).

A few minutes later, the Germany striker got a second bite at the cherry and he made no mistake this time. Ermedin Demirovic blocked a clearance high up into the air and was able to take down the ball in the box with his first touch, before laying off for Undav to finish into the bottom corner (30’). Chris Führich could have doubled VfB’s lead just one minute before the break, but was only able to find the outside of the post.

Kömür comes closest

With the lead behind them, Stuttgart showed more authority with possession in the second half and still carried more of a threat going forward. It wasn’t until Augsburg head coach Jess Thorup made a couple of attacking changes around the hour-mark, bringing on Mert Kömür and Samuel Essende, that his side started to show signs of getting back into the game.

The match began to open up and Undav was first to try his luck, curling a shot tantalisingly close to adding a second for VfB, but it drifted just a few feet wide of the target (69’). Alexander Nübel was then finally called into notable action by substitute Kömür, whose thunderous effort from 25 yards needed two strong hands from the DFB-Team goalkeeper to stop it from finding the top corner (70’). It was Kömür again who had the visitors’ final chance, directing a pull-back from Dimitrios Giannoulis on target in the 79th minute, albeit straight at Nübel. It was the second 1-0 victory over FCA in the space of a few weeks following their Bundesliga clash in January, this time earning Sebastian Hoeneß’ side a place in April’s semis.