Bremen and Stuttgart continue: Mainz 05 tumbled to the next low point

Wednesday December 23, 2020

Bremen and Stuttgart continue
Mainz 05 stumbles to the next low point

Promotion, seventh place in the Bundesliga at Christmas and the move into the second round of the cup – VfB Stuttgart is in a brilliant position at the end of 2020. Krisenklub Mainz 05 looks sovereign at first, but gives the victory completely unnecessarily – and makes a disaster year perfect.

VfB Stuttgart – SC Freiburg 1: 0 (1: 0)

Sturm-Turm Sasa Kalajdzic and VfB Stuttgart spoiled Christian Streich's little cup anniversary and spoiled the cult coach's Christmas party. Thanks to Kalajdzic's early goal, the Bundesliga promoted team won 1-0 (1-0) in the 42nd Swabian-Baden duel with SC Freiburg, making it into the second round like last year. Streich had to experience the 25th Stuttgart competitive game win in the derby in his 25th cup game as head coach. His team missed the strengths that had brought them three league wins in a row at the end of the year for far too long and failed for the third time in a row in round two.

The SC initially had nothing to counter the goal of Kalajdzic (15th). Orel Mangala (54th) initially had the chance to make it 2-0 for VfB, but Freiburg slowly shed its shyness, driven by Vincenzo Grifo. After a mistake by goalkeeper Fabian Bredlow, substitute Ermedin Demirovic (60th) had the equalizer on the foot. Kalajdzic (72nd), who had more goal area scenes than all of Freiburg's combined, could have made the preliminary decision, seconds later Uphoff saved against Mangala. In the final phase, the SC risked more, but Demirovic missed by head (88th).

Hannover 96 – Werder Bremen 0: 3 (0: 2)

A messed up year, a conciliatory end: Werder Bremen easily walked into the second round. The team of coach Florian Kohfeldt deservedly won 3-0 (2-0) in the second round at the second division Hannover 96. Theodor Gebre Selassie (30th) and Josh Sargent (32nd) brought Werder with one the day before Christmas Eve Double strike early on, Jean-Manuel Mbom (60th) then made everything clear. Hanover remained pale overall.

The year in which Werder only stayed in the Bundesliga via relegation in the summer ends with a little happy ending for the traditional club. After four defeats in the last five Bundesliga games, the Hanseatic team didn't manage everything, but in the end the favorite bit through in the north duel and can now breathe deeply at Christmas.

1. FSV Mainz 05 – VfL Bochum 2: 2 (1: 0) n.V., 0: 3 on pens

The crisis-ridden FSV Mainz 05 missed the second round in a penalty thriller after turbulent days. One day after the separation from sports director Rouven Schröder, the Rheinhessen were defeated by the second division VfL Bochum 0-3 on penalties. After regular playing time and extra time, the match was 2-2. For the heavily counted Jan-Moritz Lichte it should have been the last game as head coach.

After hits from Jean-Paul Boetius (7th) and captain Danny Latza (55th), the day before Christmas Eve it looked like a sense of achievement for the unsettled Mainz team. Gerrit Holtmann (66th) and Robert Tesche (90th + 4) saved the guests who were outnumbered after the red card against goalkeeper Manuel Riemann (95th, emergency brake). At Mainz Adam Szalai, Kevin Stöger and Jean-Philippe Mateta failed their nerves in the drama from the point.

SV Wehen Wiesbaden – Jahn Regensburg 0: 0 (0: 0) n.V., 2: 4 on pens

Jahn Regensburg is back in the round of 16 after 17 years. The second division won a balanced second round match at the lower-class SV Wehen Wiesbaden after 120 goalless minutes with 4-2 on penalties. SSV Jahn has never reached the quarter-finals.

The game was intense, but also tough. Both teams did not want to expose their defense in favor of the offensive, the hope of a big game and the 700,000 euro bonus for moving into the next round were too tempting. There was no class difference.

Phillip Tietz (30th) for Wiesbaden and Regensburg's Max Besuschkow (45th + 1) could have forced the opponent to take more initiative if they had used their chances. Alexander Meyer then saved Dominik Prokop's decisive penalty, Tietz had previously shot at the crossbar.