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Hertha edge out Stuttgart

Ross Dunbar October 3, 2014

The former Chelsea man added his second and third goals of the season to help Hertha secure a valuable three points. Armin Veh has one win in seven this season, as the vultures begin to circle already.

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Kalou scores
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Lukas Schulze

After scoring for the first time in Germany last weekend, Salomon Kalou struck a double to help Hertha Berlin to all three points against Stuttgart.

Kalou scored from the penalty spot on Friday to cancel out an early opening goal for the Swabians, but went on to score after the interval. Dutchman Roy Beerens netted his first Bundesliga goal to edge out Stuttgart and secure Hertha's second win of the season.

The Berliners fielded three different players from their narrow loss in Augsburg - Nico Schulz, Anis Ben-Hatira and Valentin Stocker - adding some freshness to the side. The latter, signed from FC Basel, has spent most of this season in the U23s, but brought an extra quality to Hertha, who had won two from their last 18 league games.

Vedad Ibisevic returned after a spell on the bench - and he justified his selection in the third minute, spinning the ball beautifully through to Florian Klein. The right-back then crossed for the young midfielder Moritz Leitner and he held his composure to score.

Berlin fightback

But the chances began to pile up for Hertha: Ben-Hatira, coming into the side, failed to beat Stuttgart's stand-in keeper - but was key going forward for Jos Luhukay's men. In the 22nd minute, the Berliners drew level as Ivorian Kalou sent Thorsten Kirchbaum the wrong way from the penalty spot.

Moritz Leitner
Leitner broke the deadlock early with his second league goal for the clubImage: Stuart Franklin/Bongarts/Getty Images

The hosts remained on top with Stocker a crafty, drifting player from the left-flank. In the 63rd minute, after a quiet start to the second half, former Chelsea attacker Kalou completed a sterling counterattack that went through Stocker and on to the Ivorian who finished with a touch of experience.

Eleven minutes later, the Old Lady made the match safe, breaking up Stuttgart's fragile game and launching another counterattack for Beerens to convert for his first Bundesliga goal.

With eight minutes to go, Leitner's inswinging and wickedly struck free-kick took a deflection off Sandro Wagner and flew into the top right-hand corner of the net to cut the arrears.

It made things interesting for a moment, but Hertha held on and removed a bit of pressure from Luhukay's shoulders.

Follow the match as it happened below on our Live Ticker.