Bundesliga: Stuttgart beats Hamburg in the play-off and escapes

Stuttgart, sixteenth in the Bundesliga at the end of the season, saved its place in the first division after winning the round-trip play-off (6-1 on aggregate) against Hamburg, 3rd in the second division, Monday evening in the north of the 'Germany.

Sebastian Hoeness' men, who arrived on the bench from Stuttgart in early April on a mission to save the club from relegation, won 3-1 after already winning the first leg 3-0 four days ago at home.

Monday evening, Sonny Kittel gave hope to the 57,000 HSV supporters massed in the Volksparkstadion, by opening the scoring in the 6th minute, but the Frenchman Enzo Millot showered the atmosphere on returning from the locker room, by equalizing in the 48th minute, then giving the advantage to VfB in the 64th minute. Silas scored the last goal in the seventh minute of added time.

Since the reintroduction in 2009 of a play-off between the 3rd in the second division and the 16th in the Bundesliga, only three clubs in the lower echelon have managed to come back up: Nuremberg in 2009, Fortuna Düsseldorf in 2012 and Union Berlin in 2019. And in total, the 25 accession/relegation play-offs turned 19 times in favor of the Bundesliga club.

For HSV, a historic club in German football (six championship titles, a European Cup of champion clubs in 1983 and 55 consecutive seasons in the Bundesliga until 2018), the last ten days will leave regrets.

On the final day, after beating Sandhausen, Hamburg thought they had secured their comeback after five seasons in purgatory, celebrating a bit too soon.

Because at the final whistle, Heidenheim, forced to win, was trailing 2-1 in Regensburg. They scored two goals in stoppage time, from which Tim Walter's men did not recover.