Late penalty costs Stuttgart dearly in Bundesliga

Sat, Feb 19, 2022
Soccer News (AP)

BERLIN (AP) - Relegation-threatened Stuttgart was on the verge of claiming its first Bundesliga win since December when it conceded a penalty in the third minute of injury time to draw 1-1 with Bochum on Saturday.

Eduard Lowen made the most of Mavropanos Konstantinos' poor challenge on Sebastian Polter by scoring the equalizer from the spot and stretching Stuttgart's dismal run to eight games without a victory.

Konstantinos, the Greek defender who is Stuttgart's top scorer with four goals, was disconsolate after the final whistle, when he was supported by teammates and opposing players.

Stuttgart remains second from bottom in a direct relegation place with 11 rounds remaining.

Lowen's late equalizer for promoted Bochum wasn't enough to prevent the so-called "Bayern Munich curse" from striking again - Bochum had beaten the Bavarian powerhouse 4-2 in its previous game and, like the previous eight teams to achieve the feat, it failed to follow up with a win.

Danish forward Jonas Wind's first Bundesliga goal for Wolfsburg wasn't enough as visiting Hoffenheim came back to win 2-1.

Wolfsburg reportedly paid 12 million euros ($13.4 million) to FC Copenhagen for Wind on the last day of the winter transfer window, and the 23-year-old went some way to justifying the fee when he curled the ball inside the far post from around 15 meters (yards) in the 36th minute.

Wolfsburg was on course for its third win in three games after the Volkswagen-backed club had snapped an 11-game run without a win in any competition, but there was another Danish player on the field, too.

Not to be outdone by his compatriot, Jacob Bruun Larsen equalized for Hoffenheim with a scissors kick in the 74th and then helped set up Andrej Kramaric for the winner in the 78th.

Union Berlin slumped to a 1-0 loss at Arminia Bielefeld for its third consecutive defeat since experienced forward Max Kruse joined Wolfsburg.

Also, Freiburg won 2-1 at Augsburg, which remains in the relegation playoff place.

Cologne hosts Eintracht Frankfurt in the late game.

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Ciaran Fahey on Twitter: https://twitter.com/cfaheyAP