Europa League Play-Off Round, Half-Time Report: VfB Stuttgart vs. Slovan Bratislava
The first leg tonight in Slovakia was scheduled to kick off a little earlier than usual, at around 12:45 EST. However, this first leg was the beginning of the final step in the qualification of the two teams playing tonight into the Europa League group stages. Slovakia's current defending Cup holders and title winners Bratislava were without their exceptional defender Kornel Salata. The player was a standout performer for the team last season and was highly impressive for his home-team Slovakia during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Bratislava's home stadium is currently facing renovation and is under the process of being reconstructed, which is why tonight’s game was scheduled to be played in the Pasienky Stadium, whose capacity was set to be around twelve thousand.
Stuttgart, who aren't enjoying good form in the build-up to the German Bundesliga so far, have come out with all guns blazing. They were here with their full strength team with the exception of Stefano Celozzi, who was out due to an injury. Most experts believed going into the game that Stuttgart would perform much better tonight, as compared to some of their prior matches over the last couple of weeks. The most notable feature for the German team was the fact that Tasci was fit and ready to go, which meant that their defence was going to be at its best. Delpierre made the trip, but was still out due to an injury that the player suffered. It was quite unsure before the kick-off as to how the team would be rearranged to cope with the absence of the player. However, it was strongly believed that the team that would be fielded tonight would be the final squad that would participate in the German Bundesliga as the team’s starting eleven.
Experts strongly believed that going into the game, Bratislava had the edge over their opponents. They were the best team that Stuttgart were facing prior to the German League and were sure to give the team a run for their money. They also believed that at the very least, the home team would come away from the match with a draw.
Both teams were raring to go before the whistle to start the match was blown, as the crowd went wild waiting in anticipation.
The whistle was finally blown and things got underway. The teams had some early exchanges in the possession of the ball. However, Stuttgart slowly started to muscle their way onto the ball more than their opponents.
Stuttgart started to take the game to Bratislava in the first five minutes. However, to everyone's surprise, Bratislava caught their opponents off-guard. In the ninth minute of the match, Martin Dobrotka gave the Slovakian team the lead after heading in a delightfully whipped in ball by Michal Breznanik.
After the goal, Bratislava suddenly turned the pressure on Stuttgart. The Slovakian team was seeing much more of the ball and were creating far more chances than their German opponents, and even when they gave the ball away, they would go all out to win possession back.
The first half finally drew to a close with the home team gaining more possession after scoring the opening goal of the game. As the teams went down the tunnel for the fifteen minute break, the score-line read one nil in favour of Bratislava.
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