Sebastian Hoeneß did not want to see his next unbeaten game as coach of VfB Stuttgart as a setback in the relegation battle of the Bundesliga.
After the 1-1 draw at FC Augsburg, the 40-year-old put the increased demands after the upswing in his still short tenure. “I think the point can be very valuable,” said Hoeneß, emphasizing: “We’re not in a position to say we’ll easily take three points here in Augsburg. It was clear that we had to fight to the end .”
With 25 points, the Stuttgarters continue to rank on the relegation place. The gap of five points to the not yet saved Augsburg remained the same. On Saturday, bottom of the table Hertha BSC could draw level with VfB on points with a home win against Werder Bremen. And the penultimate FC Schalke 04 (24 points) would even overtake Stuttgart if they surprisingly won in Freiburg on Sunday.
“We take with us the certainty that we can live and march,” Hoeneß summed up after 90 “intense and classy” minutes in Augsburg. He praised his team for improving performance in the second half, which was rewarded with captain Wataru Endo’s equalizer. “We’re not happy with the result, but we can be proud of the second half,” said Hoeneß. He looked straight ahead again. “Now we want to ennoble the point next week against Gladbach.”
Under Bruno Labbadia’s successor, the VfB team picked up five points in three league games against Bochum, Dortmund and now Augsburg. In addition, Hoeneß’ premiere managed to reach the semi-finals of the DFB Cup with a 1-0 win at second division club 1. FC Nürnberg.
