Matchday in focus: VfB Stuttgart

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Eintracht Frankfurt

·29 Maret 2025

Matchday in focus: VfB Stuttgart

The average age of Stuttgart’s starting XI is the youngest in the top flight this season, but VfB have not won any of their last five league games – despite the fine form of Nick Woltemade.

Tactics

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Head coach Sebastian Hoeneß, who only recently extended his contract in Stuttgart, normally sets his team up in a defensive formation with a four-man defence, alternating between a 4-5-1 and a classic 4-4-2. Whatever shape Hoeneß opts for at Deutsche Bank Park on Saturday evening, the visitors are likely to field a young starting line-up by Bundesliga standards: The average age of VfB’s first XI this season is 25 years and 110 days – the youngest in the top flight – while Eintracht’s is 25 years and 188 days.

Hoeneß may be tempted into changes, however, with Stuttgart currently occupying tenth place in the table and without a win in their last five league matches. They have surrendered leads in all of those games – the first time they have done so in five consecutive Bundesliga encounters.

Absentees

Eintracht will be without Kevin Trapp, Elye Wahi and Timothy Chandler (all injured). Igor Matanovic has returned to first-team training but is not yet fit enough to be included in the squad.

As for Stuttgart, Dan-Axel Zagadou, Anrie Chase, Justin Diehl and Luca Raimund are sidelined through injury, while Leonidas Stergiou is suspended.

One to watch: Nick Woltemade

Nick Woltemade was in international action just down the road from Deutsche Bank Park on Tuesday evening, scoring all three goals in Germany U21s’ 3-1 win over Spain.

The 23-year-old, 1.98m striker barely featured for VfB during the first few months of the season before scoring in the 3-2 home defeat to Eintracht back in November, but he has appeared in every league game since. Woltemade …

… has scored or assisted four goals in his last five Bundesliga appearances.
… failed to find the net in the Bundesliga until his 39th top-flight appearance, when he scored twice for Bremen against Mönchengladbach in May 2024.
… joined Bremen’s youth academy as an eight-year-old and later enjoyed a loan spell with SV Elversberg before signing for Stuttgart in summer 2024.
… has made 35 appearances for Germany’s U16, U17, U20 and U21 sides.

Key stats and runs

The Eagles have scored a club-high 175 goals in 103 league games against Stuttgart. VfB, however, have also found the net more often against Eintracht than against any other side in the Bundesliga, netting 188 goals overall.

Stuttgart’s Ermedin Demirovic has registered more goal involvements against Eintracht than against any other Bundesliga outfit (one goal, five assists).

Eintracht have lost only two of their last 11 Bundesliga meetings with VfB, winning five and drawing four.