Win for the red bulls?
Finally Bundesliga football again! Now that the second and third Bundesliga leagues are already back in action, the Beletage of German football is also picking up speed again this weekend. VfB Stuttgart will face a tricky task at the start of the season.
After the VfB managed to master the compulsory task in Dresden in the cup the previous week, the red bulls from Leipzig will be the guests at the Mercedes-Benz Arena for the season opener. In the still young history of this duel, the Bullen have so far turned out to be the Stuttgart team’s fearful opponents. They have lost seven of the eight matches so far and have only managed to hold Leipzig to a draw once.
After the VfB managed to master the compulsory task in Dresden in the cup the previous week, the red bulls from Leipzig will be the guests in the Mercedes-Benz Arena for the season opener. In the still young history of this duel, the Bullen have so far turned out to be the Stuttgart team’s fearful opponents. They have lost seven of the eight matches so far and have only managed to hold Leipzig to a draw once.
VfB Stuttgart – statistics & current form
The Swabians got off to a positive start in their first competitive match last weekend. If you add in the test matches, this was VfB Stuttgart’s sixth win in a row across the season. Now, however, the Swabians face a real test of endurance. RB Leipzig come to the Mercedes Benz Arena for the season opener. A team against whom they have always looked poor in the past, losing seven of the eight meetings so far.
Can Stuttgart score in their own stadium in the season opener?
Only once so far has a draw been achieved in their own stadium against the red bulls. In order to get at least a point against Leipzig again this time, an improvement in performance compared to the cup match against Dresden is a must. While they showed a decent performance in the first half, VfB’s play seemed erratic and unfocused in the second half.
Coach Matarazzo even spoke of a refusal to work in the second half, while sports director Mislintat attested a good performance to his team. The truth lies somewhere in the middle. Once again, the dependence on top scorer Kalajdzic and top provider Sosa became clear. In their absence, VfB scored only one goal against the third division team, but at least the defence stood firm this time.
There was disagreement in the sporting management’s assessment of the cup match, but there is probably agreement that the squad needs to be strengthened after the sale of Mangala, even though striker Luca Pfeiffer was signed during the week. Especially since Kalajdzic and Sosa are still threatening to leave during this transfer period. There is still a need for action, especially in the defensive midfield. At least Karazor has been training with the team again since last week, after missing the entire preparation for well-known reasons.
Their record against Champions League teams last season also gives little reason for hope. In the new season, everything should be better with an almost unchanged squad. The fact that Stuttgart tries to play against such opponents and not stonewall like other relegation candidates certainly suits teams like Leipzig.
Stuttgart, on the other hand, see the positive experience of the last-minute relegation against Cologne as an opportunity to give the team a boost and new self-confidence for the upcoming season. However, the VfB’s key players, Sosa and Kalajdzic, will probably not be able to play against Leipzig – bad news for Matarazzo. He will also be missing Faghir, Egloff, Kastanaras, Coulibaly and Nartey for the first home game of the new season.
Predicted line-up of VfB Stuttgart:
Muller, Mavropanos, Anton, Ito, Vagnoman, Ahamada, Führich, Endo, Tomas, Churlinow, Silas
Last matches played by VfB Stuttgart:
DFB Cup
29/07/2022 – Dynamo Dresden 0 – 1 VfB Stuttgart
Friendly club matches
23/07/2022 – VfB Stuttgart 5 – 2 Valencia
16/07/2022 – VfB Stuttgart 2 – 1 Brentford
09/07/2022 – VfB Stuttgart 3 – 2 FC Zurich
02/07/2022 – VfB Stuttgart 7 – 1 Boeblingen
RB Leipzig – Statistics & current form
After the upheaval last summer, the regular squad of the red bulls remained largely together this summer. Thus, Leipzig hopes to play a better pre-season than last season. At the end of the first half of last season, RB had the worst first half in its young Bundesliga history.
The Bullen were particularly toothless away from home, not managing a single away win. As a result of this misery, the misunderstanding with former coach Jesse Marsch was dissolved and Domenico Tedesco took over and turned the season that had started so badly into the most successful season in the club’s history.
Are the Bulls going straight to the top?
At the end, they reached the semi-finals of the Europa League for the first time and won the DFB Cup, the first title in the club’s history. In addition, as the best team in the second half of the season, they secured a ticket to the group stage of the Champions League. And this time RB wants to attack right from the start of the new season and establish itself at the top. To do so, they need a win in Stuttgart to start the season.
Recently, RB Leipzig was shown by the crème de la crème of European club football that there is still a huge gap between them and the absolute top teams in Europe. Both the test match against Liverpool, in which Liverpool’s new star striker Nunez in particular caused the Saxon defence great problems with four goals, and the Supercup against Bayern were clear defeats.
The Bavarians played Leipzig up against the wall, especially in the first half. At least Tedesco should have been pleased with his team’s morale in the second half, when they came back from a 4:1 deficit to within one goal, even though Bayern noticeably shifted down a gear.
It should not be inconvenient for Tedesco that Stuttgart is an opponent who does not fall into this category. Moreover, VfB is one of RB’s favourite opponents in the Bundesliga, with seven wins in eight encounters. Tedesco’s personal record against the Swabians is also consistently positive.
He has won all four of his encounters against Stuttgart, three times with Schalke and once with Leipzig. Qualitatively, the guests are much stronger anyway. Against this background, the forecast for VfB Stuttgart against RB Leipzig is for an away win. Tedesco will be missing Lookman, Sörloth and Poulsen in Stuttgart.
Predicted line-up of RB Leipzig:
Gulacsi, Simakan, Orban, Halstenberg, Klostermann, Laimer, Kampl, Henrichs, Olmo, Silva, Nkunku
Last matches played by RB Leipzig:
Super Cup
31/07/2022 – RB Leipzig 3 – 5 Bayern Munich
Friendly club matches
21/07/2022 – RB Leipzig 0 – 5 FC Liverpool
16/07/2022 – RB Leipzig 3 – 1 Southampton
DFB Cup
22/05/2022 – SC Freiburg (2)1 – 1(4) RB Leipzig
Bundesliga
14/05/2022 – Arminia Bielefeld 1 – 1 RB Leipzig
VfB Stuttgart – RB Leipzig Direct comparison / H2H-balance
The record in the still young history of this duel is clear: Leipzig won seven of the previous eight duels in the Bundesliga. Stuttgart have only managed a draw once in this encounter – at home in the 2017/18 season, the score was 0-0 after 90 minutes.
It is also worth noting that Stuttgart have only managed one goal in all eight games against the red bulls, while they have already conceded 15. Five of Leipzig’s seven victories also came by more than a one-goal difference.
VfB Stuttgart – RB Leipzig tip
When the traditional club from Stuttgart met the upstart from Leipzig in the past, the Swabians usually ended up empty-handed. This time, too, the tip for VfB Stuttgart against RB Leipzig goes in the direction of an away win.
Points against Champions League teams are not part of Stuttgart’s plans this season, even if they would like to take them home. However, Leipzig is one of the Swabians’ most feared opponents, having lost seven of their eight matches against the red bulls.
Even though their current form is encouraging ahead of the first home game, RB Leipzig are the clear favourites in this match and will also be entering with anger in their stomachs after losing the Supercup final. With a win, Leipzig will be looking to go straight to the top of the table, after they made a mess of the first half of the season last year.
Stuttgart not only lost seven of their eight games against Leipzig, in all eight encounters VfB only managed to score a single goal, a record of horror. In addition, top scorer Kalajdzic and top provider of assists Sosa will in all likelihood not be enough for the Leipzig match.
