In the battle of the promoted sides, Arminia Bielefeld came out on top against VfB Stuttgart with top scorers Fabian Klos and Ritsu Doan firing them to a vital three points.

Arminia Bielefeld 3-0 VfB Stuttgart
Goals: 1-0 Klos (28'), 2-0 Kempf (o.g. 47'), 3-0 Doan (86')

Runners-up behind Bundesliga 2 champions Bielefeld last season, Stuttgart started the better at the Schüco Arena. Sasa Kalajdzic - who was in for the suspended Nicolas Gonzalez - had the first real chance of the game after controlling Borna Sosa's cross in front of goal, but couldn't beat Stefan Ortega between the Bielefeld posts. Arminia were slower out of the traps, but made the most of their first shot on goal as they took the lead just before the half-hour mark. Jacob Laursen's fantastic low cross from the left beat Gregor Kobel and found Klos at the back post to slide home the opener. The scoreline was inches from being doubled just two minutes later as Sergio Cordova latched onto Klos' flick-on but sliced his shot wide across goal. The home side's tails were up for the rest of the first half, even if Stuttgart had a larger portion of the possession and tested Ortega once more with a deflected shot from Philipp Förster.

Bielefeld had come up short against Stuttgart in both meetings in the Bundesliga 2 last term, but were well on their way to victory in the top-flight just two minutes into the second half. Doan teased the away side's defence before his cross was inadvertently put into his own net by Marc-Oliver Kempf to double the hosts' lead. Bielefeld were full of confidence and Doan almost set up a third, but was denied brilliantly by Kobel, who firstly palmed out his cross before keeping out Marcel Hartel's close-range rebound. Stuttgart responded with Kalajdzic's header bouncing just wide across Ortega and his goal, before Roberto Massimo fired wide from inside the Bielefeld penalty area. Ortega was the only thing keeping Stuttgart out as he thwarted Kalajdzic again with phenomenal reflexes using his legs. Bielefeld then sealed the win on the counter-attack, with Doan sliding his shot past Kobel as the Bundesliga's lowest scorers upset the strongest team on the road in the top flight this season.

Match stats

• Dian and Klos are Bielefeld's joint-top scorers. While they may only have three goals each, their strikes have accounted for eight of the club's 16 points this season.
• Klos has scored one with his left foot, one with the right and one with his head in 2020/21.
• Bielefeld have lost only one of their last five league Bundesliga fixtures (W3, D1), going back-to-back games without defeat for the first time since the opening two matchdays of the season.
• VfB were unbeaten in eight competitive encounters with Bielefeld before this game, and haven't defeated them in the Bundesliga in five attempts (D3, L2). Their last top-flight victory over Arminia came the season they won the title in 2006/07.
• Arminia were Bundesliga 2 champions last season, finishing 10 points clear of Stuttgart but failing to beat the runners-up in their two encounters.
• Stuttgart - who have claimed more points away from home than any team in the Bundesliga this season - suffered only their second away defeat of the campaign

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Line-ups

Bielefeld: Ortega - Brunner, Pieper, Nilsson, Laursen - Kunze - Doan (Soukou 89'), Hartel (van der Hoorn 89'), Yabo (Gebauer 62') - Klos (c) (Seufert 81'), Cordova (Schipplock 62')
Unused subs: Linner, de Medina, Lucoqui, Maier
Out: Prietl (muscular), Voglsammer (calf)
Coach: Uwe Neuhaus

Stuttgart: Kobel - Stenzel (Klement 57'), Anton, Kempf (c) - Coulibaly (Massimo 57'), Mangala, Endo, Sosa (Churlinov 64') - Förster (Didavi 64'), Klimowicz - Kalajdzic
Unused subs: Bredlow, Mavropanos, Castro, Thommy, Karazor
Out: Al Ghaddioui (pelvis), Awoudja (Achilles tendon), Gonzalez (suspended), Mola (hip), Silas (suspended)
Coach: Pellegrino Matarazzo

About the clubs

VfB Stuttgart

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