VfB Stuttgart survived the first round of the DFB Cup in Dresden. Only Anton’s dismissal dampened the mood and was the biggest topic among the Swabians after the final whistle.
“Basically, we played a good game for many phases, we should have led by more and we were unlucky. All in all, it was well deserved,” was Sven Mislintat’s verdict on Sky after his Stuttgart side’s 1-0 win at the Rudolf Harbig Stadium. The sporting director had known in advance “that this was not going to be a walk in the park”, which is why his team “also had the necessary bit of luck” when it came to holding on to the lead in front of the usual vociferous Dresden crowd.
Anton’s fate impossible to comprehend
The 49-year-old, meanwhile, could not comprehend why it had come to this. “Actually, the referee’s performance in this match was excellent, but he was completely wrong with the yellow card,” Mislintat commented on Florian Badstübner’s performance when Waldemar Anton was sent off, explaining: “It was unnecessary because of the way the game had been conducted up to that point. The first yellow is okay because they told us it can be yellow for delay of game, but the foul is a running up in midfield with tens of players behind it.”
The official received encouragement from the scorer of the golden goal Darko Churlinov: “For me it was completely wrong. You can’t give a yellow card for a free kick like that. The first card was also already shaky and at first glance this sending off looks wrong to me then.”
Churlinov believes in the team and will stay with it
Never the less, Churlinov, who spent last season with Schalke, was at no point worried about success: “It didn’t unsettle me because I know we have good defenders. I believe in the team and that the boys play well even with one man less.”
The Swabians now want to play well in the Bundesliga to avoid another season in the relegation battle. Whereby Churlinov, hotly courted by Schalke, will probably be able to help. “It’s not the plan. At the very beginning the door was open, but Darko also said at the time that he is 100 percent a VfB player if Schalke can’t finalise it,” Mislintat hinted at keeping the variable attacking player in Ländle for this season.