Stuttgart rue missed penalty and Xherdan Shaqiri magic after upset Europa League loss | OneFootball

Bundesliga Europa League representatives VfB Stuttgart find themselves engaging in plenty of navel-gazing after what should have been an easy victory away at FC Basel on Thursday night. Chief among those was lead striker Ermedin Demirovic, who has now missed three penalties whilst representing his current club. Demirovic – who famously cost former club SC Freiburg the German cup with a miss against Leipzig in the DFB Pokal Final – was not in a good mood.

Demirovic was among eight Stuttgart professionals who successfully converted penalties in a wild shootout win over Eintracht Braunschweig in the opening round of the Pokal this year, but that doesn’t quite erase the fact that Demirovic missed both of his Bundesliga takes last season. Angelo Stiller has also missed from the spot this year, leaving one wondering who will step forward next time Stuttgart are awarded a penalty.

The 27-year-old did make reference to the fact that a late VAR of the 33rd-minute awarded penalty broke his concentration. When Demirovic finally did square off against FC Basel keeper Marwin Hitz in the 36th, the former Wolfsburg, Augsburg, and Borussia Dortmund professional came out the winner.

“Of course it’s in total shit now,” Demirovic told RTL. “The [penalty taking] rate is just not good. I don’t want to make excuses, but it was a lousy situation. I thought the [VAR] check was done. That’s why I stood there and took a run-up. I was ready. Then came another check. Today was just a day during which everything went against us.“

For his part, VfB head coach Sebastian Hoeneß did praise his team for not giving up in both his post-match interview and the post-match press conference. Hoeneß made cure to credit Hitz with a fine performance. Swiss legend Xherdan Shaqiri also did a fantastic job for the underdogs on the evening and ultimately punished the profligate guests with the 2-0 “nail-in-the-coffin” in the 84th minute.

“[My team] pushed through to the very end,” Hoeneß noted at the press conference. “It was an  power play in the second half. At some point, you still have to score. Of course, there’s always the danger of a counterattack on the other side. Shaqiri briefly showed why he was world class striker for a good part of his career.“

GGFN | Peter Weis