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Davie Selke
Photo: IMAGO/Sebastian Räppold / Matthias Koch / IMAGO/Matthias Koch
Hertha BSC has won a key game in the Bundesliga relegation battle.
The Berliners defeated VfB Stuttgart, a direct competitor, at home.
With the 2-0 (1-0) success, Hertha (15th place) extended their lead over VfB (relegation place 16th) to four points.
The Berlin distance to the direct relegation zone is even six points.
31 of 34 game days have now been completed.
Davie Selke scored the opening goal, and he scored it early: it came in the 5th minute and was Hertha's second good chance up to that point.
In front of him, Marc-Oliver Kempf had headed just wide of the goal after a standard set (3rd minute);
Shortly thereafter, Marvin Plattenhardt crossed sharply into the penalty area from the left, where Selke sprinted and shot the ball into the goal.
Although he was initially called back, it turned out that the attacker had not been offside - the goal counted.
It was Selke's third in the current Bundesliga season.
Both teams subsequently had their chances, albeit not many.
Berlin's Lucas Tousart hit the side netting, again the hosts had become dangerous after a standard (45 + 2).
Later, Peter Pekarik's shot just missed the far post (68').
Stuttgart's Mavropanos hits the bar
Konstantinos Mavropanos booked what was probably the best opportunity in Stuttgart shortly after the break.
The central defender stormed forward and got the shot, but his shot was deflected decisively and didn't go into the goal, but instead touched the bar (53').
Especially in the closing stages, it was the guests who were pushing for a goal, but they were struggling to get quality deals.
Instead, Ishak Belfodil made the decision.
He pranced through the Stuttgart penalty area and sent keeper Florian Müller wide, only to hit the near corner (90' + 3').
So VfB now needs a very successful end-of-season spurt to leave the relegation rank behind.
And support from Hertha.
The Berliners, on the other hand, seem to be on the way to staying up with the amazing Felix Magath.
Magath was appointed to succeed Tayfun Korkut in mid-March.
After the success over VfB, his record reads positively: Berlin has lost two of the five games since his commitment - and won three.
Hertha will have to deal directly with the next competitor at Arminia Bielefeld (17th place) on the coming matchday, on the last matchday the team Mainz 05. Stuttgart still meets Wolfsburg at home and then has to go to Bayern Munich.
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