VfB Stuttgart is anxious for the relegation return match on Monday (8.30 p.m. in the LIVETICKER) at second-league team Union Berlin for Daniel Didavi. The playmaker would be plagued by “muscular problems”. “Behind him is a really big question mark,” said coach Nico Willig on Sunday. Didavi had been substituted for the break in the disappointing 2-2 first leg.
Santiago Ascacibar, on the other hand, is available again after a five-week suspension because of his spitting attack against Leverkusen’s Kai Havertz. “Whether or not he will move directly into the team will also depend on Didavi,” Willig said about the Argentinian.
Despite the remarkable draw in Stuttgart, the Union had pushed VfB into the role of favourite. “The discussion is superfluous after the 2:2. There’s a slight advantage for Union. But we’ve got a final coming up. It will depend on who in this pressure situation, in this knowledge of what is at stake, is calling for better performance,” Willig said.
VfB still has it “in its own hands,” Willig continued: “We simply have to be good now and do things much better in order to win. “We must increase our penalty area both in our opponents and in our own.” This season, however, there have already been “phases where we followed a bad result with a really good one. That also gives strength”.
After 1975 and 2016, VfB is facing its third relegation. A 0:0 or 1:1 in the Alte Försterei would suffice for the second league third Union in view of the away goals rule to advance.
