Unbeaten in Europe, 13th at home: Stuttgart host Simeone's Atlético
Struggling in the Bundesliga but perfect in the Champions League, VfB Stuttgart host Atlético Madrid on Tuesday night. Coach Sebastian Hoeness called the Spanish side the "Nonplusultra" and demanded more efficiency.
Archive image · Photo: Hobby-Fotograf2013 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped and resized)
VfB Stuttgart host Atlético Madrid on Tuesday (2100 local time) in their third Champions League league-phase game. The German side have won both of their opening matches, including a 3-0 victory at Slovan Bratislava, but sit only 13th in the Bundesliga after a poor start.
Coach Sebastian Hoeness was full of praise for the Spanish club and Diego Simeone, who has been in charge of Atlético for almost 15 years. He described the club, several of its players and above all Simeone as the "Nonplusultra," placing the Argentine in the "very highest category" of coaches, and called Atlético the toughest opponent Stuttgart have faced in the competition so far.
After Saturday's 1-0 defeat at Hamburger SV, Hoeness wants his side to be more clinical, the dpa news agency reported. Left-back Maximilian Mittelstädt is fit again after injury and could start.