The talks of a "old friend" visiting Neckarstadion ended fairly quickly as FC Köln trounced die Roten in a convincing fashion. From the start Christoph Daum pushed the attack forward and three minutes in the match, Stuttgart was behind as their Mišo Brečko cross was headed by Sergiu Radu towards the goal but Jens Lehmann parry fell to Milivoje Novakovic who immediately tucked the ball into the net. From their the tale of the match was missed opportunities for Vfb while controlling the run of play but additionally Köln playing an efficient, tactically superb match. An hour into the match a dreadful defensive error by Thomas Hitzlsperger gave the ball to Milivoje Novakovic who strode into alone toward Jens and without hesitation it was 2-0. Vfb continued to fight back as with twenty-one minutes remaining Cacau's corner was re-directed by Martin Laniginto the box and German capped international Roberto Hilbert brought supporters to their feet. Vfb pushed for the equalizer but it couldn't be found and a goal deep into added time by Petit made it 3-1.
After the match the club noted their disappointment:
VfB coach Armin Veh: "It was absolutely fatal for us that we went behind so early in the game. On the whole, we are extremely disappointed because we had much more of the play than our opponents. The fact is though that we can't just rely on winning our home games, we need to take points away from home too."
VfB striker Mario Gomez: "We had planned to play aggressively, stand compact but also to set the tone in attack - then after three minutes we conceded a goal. That just shouldn't happen. After they'd scored their second it was always going to be de very difficult against a defensively minded Köln side. We gave our all but in the end it was a very bitter defeat but at the end of the day, we have only ourselves to blame."
VfB captain Thomas Hitzlsperger: "That was a very disappointing result for us today. We had such high hopes going into the game, we expected to take all three points but we just couldn't get our game going. We are going to have to get used to being under pressure for a while again now. We need to experience some success, then we'll turn things around."
