Not much was missing, then a historic 48-meter own goal by Greek central defender Konstantinos Mavropanos in the 4th minute would have meant VfB Stuttgart’s end in the round of 16 of the DFB Cup. For the next 82 minutes, the Stuttgarters ran after this bizarre goal against the second division club SC Paderborn. They had 72 percent possession, 22:1 shots on goal and 17:0 corners and were still facing defeat. Only the 1:1 of the Portuguese signing Gil Bastiao Dias, who had just come on as a substitute, in the 86th minute and the center forward Serhou Guirassy with a header in the fifth minute of added time saved the Swabians. For the first time since 2016, VfB has reached the quarter-finals of the cup and has already secured a bonus of 1.7 million euros.
Paderborn’s coach Lukas Kwasniok had to acknowledge that Stuttgart’s victory was deserved despite the unfortunate dramaturgy. “I was hoping for a magical night, unfortunately it turned out to be tragic,” he said. Stuttgart’s coach Bruno Labbadia also found the triumph of his players, who struggled until the last minute, appropriate: “Anyone who sees the late goals might think that it was a lucky win – but it wasn’t.” He was happy that his players didn’t get impatient until the end. The relief was of course enormous: “It’s great that we won it,” said Labbadia, seemed quite exhausted and expressed the hope that the “solid team performance” would now also give an impetus “for the relegation battle”. In the Bundesliga, VfB is fourth from bottom.
Nobody at VfB blamed Mavropanos. The Stuttgarters had even promised their teammates during the break to turn the game around for him. But that was also a strange scene after exactly 180 seconds.
An own goal from a longer distance is not known in German professional football. Mavropanos got into trouble on the right flank after a throw-in, not very far from the center line, and shot the ball blindly, i.e. without looking, back to his goalkeeper Florian Müller. But Müller didn’t stand in front of his goal, he stood far to the right in his penalty area to offer himself as a passing partner. When the ball shot very sharply towards the goal, Müller ran over to save what could still be saved, but he couldn’t reach the ball anymore. And so it was suddenly 1:0 for Paderborn in this freshly started 4th minute.
Made long enough: Serhou Guirassy (left) scores the late winning goal for VfB Stuttgart against Paderborn 07 at Home Deluxe Arena on January 31, 2023 in Paderborn, Germany. (Photo by Lars Baron/Getty Images)
(Foto: Lars Baron/Getty Images)
Paderborn’s coach Kwasniok was accordingly quick to operating temperature. He only wore a T-shirt, perhaps also as a tribute to his Paderborn predecessor Steffen Baumgart, who was rather insensitive to the cold, even though it was a damp and cold evening. In 1999, Kwasniok played together with VfB coach Labbadia at Arminia Bielefeld, under coach Hermann Gerland. The reunion in East Westphalia took both of them quite a bit.
After the break, Genki Haraguchi joined the Stuttgart control center. He had come from Union Berlin, but even with the Japanese and despite continued great superiority, the Stuttgarters were unable to achieve the overdue equalizer for another 41 minutes. That required another new player to come on in the 82nd minute, namely 26-year-old Portuguese Gil Bastiao Dias from Benfica Lisbon. He was on the field for 4:15 minutes when he shot near the right corner of the penalty area and put the ball fantastically into the left corner of the Paderborn goal (86th).
As everyone in the stadium prepares for extra time, Guirassy scores the winning goal
Now it could have resulted in an overtime, but with the 17th corner, the Stuttgart team actually scored the winning goal. Guirassy climbed up in the six-yard box and headed the ball in to make it 2-1. “We showed an outstanding mentality,” said goalkeeper Müller and was particularly happy for the own-goal scorer Mavropanos.
In the jubilation and in the disappointment afterwards, at least everyone agreed that a decision within 90 minutes was to be welcomed. In this way energy could be saved. Stuttgart play Werder Bremen on Sunday, Paderborn play Fortuna Düsseldorf on Friday. “So it was better to lose in 90 minutes than in 120,” Paderborn’s Ron Schallenberg consoled himself.
