Stuttgart rue missed chances as Hoeneß urges self-reflection after Roma loss | OneFootball

Stuttgart slipped to a Europa League defeat in Rome, their wasteful finishing leaving next week’s meeting with Young Boys decisive.

Despite largely matching Roma, their finishing told a different story. “We need to look at ourselves,” Sebastian Hoeneß said. “At the end of the day, you need to score the goals. We had the chances,” he told RTL. Big openings for Deniz Undav and Ermedin Demirovic went begging before Niccolo Pisilli’s second in added time settled it.

“We’re disappointed with the result, but certainly not the performance. It could’ve been a great evening if we’d scored goals from the chances we created.”

Recent profligacy has become a theme. Stuttgart failed to beat Union Berlin last time out after missing four big chances, having previously avoided punishment for poor finishing against Eintracht Frankfurt.

Captain Atakan Karazor underlined the issue again: “We’ve seen in the last games that we need to concentrate more when near the goal, in the last pass or the final shot.”

With VfB outside the top eight before the final round, they may need help elsewhere to reach the round of 16 automatically, even if they beat Young Boys. Karazor said they “need to take three points.”

From Roma, head coach Gian Piero Gasperini said: “It turned out to be a perfect match. We managed to involve everyone against a strong team. It was a very demanding test.”

He now leads Hoeneß 4-0 head to head, after his Atalanta beat Stuttgart 2-0 in the Champions League last term. Stuttgart visit Borussia Mönchengladbach this weekend before Thursday’s final league-phase fixtures.

Source: BuLi News