Stuttgart Defeats Everton 3-1 in Pre-Season Tour Finale

Everton’s pre-season tour of Germany closed with a familiar, nagging theme: chances created, chances squandered, and a scoreline that cut against the balance of their better moments. VfB Stuttgart were ruthless where the visitors were erratic, running out 3-1 winners at the MHPArena in a game that should have told a very different story.

Hayden Hackney made his first start of the tour, but there was no sign of new signing Christian Norgaard, who did not join up with the squad in Germany. With James Garner still sidelined after minor groin surgery, Sean Dyche again shuffled his defence: Lewis O’Brien dropped in alongside Jarrad Branthwaite at centre-back, with Tim Röhl once more filling in at right-back.

Bright start, brutal lesson

Branthwaite, wearing the armband, led Everton out, but Stuttgart immediately imposed themselves, keeping the ball and forcing the visitors deep. When the hosts broke dangerously early on, Branthwaite read it superbly, stepping in with a crucial challenge that stopped a clear opening.

That intervention sparked Everton into life. Beto muscled his way forward from deep, bullying defenders and driving into space, only for his final touch to let him down as he ran into traffic. It would become the pattern of his afternoon.

O’Brien, under pressure, conceded a corner that almost punished Everton, the final effort skimming wide from a tight angle. Lewis Dobling tried to inject some energy with a direct run, but he never looked fully at ease on the ball in those early exchanges.

Hackney, eager to be progressive, forced an ambitious forward pass that was never really on, and Stuttgart broke again. Slowly, though, Everton began to see more of the ball after the 10-minute mark and started to turn possession into territory.

They were handed a gift when the Stuttgart goalkeeper passed straight to Carlos Alcaraz, who quickly fed Beto. The striker had time and space but dragged his shot horribly wide. It set the tone: Everton were winning turnovers in midfield, moving into promising positions, then giving the ball away cheaply.

When they did put their passing together, they looked dangerous. A neat move ended with Hackney arriving on the edge of the area and slicing his shot just the wrong side of the far post. Stuttgart had been warning Everton from the first whistle, though, and when the opener came it was emphatic. Clinton Nartey stepped onto a loose ball and thumped it high into the roof of the net, giving Mark Travers no chance.

An early reshuffle followed. Tim Iroegbunam, who had been part of the midfield screen, went off after 18 minutes with what appeared to be an injury, Michael Keane coming on and ending the O’Brien–Branthwaite partnership almost before it had started.

Everton had reason to feel aggrieved when Dobling burst into the area and looked to have been clipped, only for the referee to wave play on. Stuttgart went straight up the other end and, this time, fired well off target.

Branthwaite then surged out of defence with a powerful break, Alcaraz carried it on, and Röhl’s shot was blocked. Beto responded with an audacious bicycle kick that never threatened the goal. Moments later, Alcaraz escaped down the left and whipped in a wicked low cross that Beto, stretching, could not quite reach.

Dobling began to find his feet, driving inside from the flank, but his final ball lacked pace and Stuttgart cleared with ease. Everton, though, were now carving out a flurry of opportunities. The problem was simple: nobody in blue could finish.

Dobling again carried the ball into the box but delayed his cross a fraction too long; when it finally reached Alcaraz, the midfielder’s shot was smothered by a defender. Röhl then picked out Beto with an excellent ball over the top. Rather than shoot, the striker tried to square to Dobling at the far post, and the chance died as the cross drifted beyond him.

The miss of the match arrived from a route-one move. Travers launched long, Beto won a superb header into Röhl’s path, and the full-back returned a perfect cross to the striker. Six yards out, unmarked, Beto swung and made contact with nothing but air. It looked easier to score.

Everton kept coming. Röhl crossed for Dobling, whose low effort forced a smart save at the near post. From the resulting corner, Dobling’s delivery was on the money but Beto climbed and powered his header over when a glancing touch might have done.

Stuttgart reminded Everton of their own threat as Mittelstädt lashed a rising 25-yard drive over the bar. Another move opened Everton up, only for Keane to be in exactly the right place to block and concede a corner.

From that set piece, Stuttgart almost doubled their lead. A towering header arrowed towards the top corner, but Travers flung himself across goal and clawed it away in outstanding fashion. He followed it up moments later with another sharp stop, stretching out a boot to keep out a low shot after more incisive home attacking.

Everton still found moments to break. Alcaraz released Röhl on the right, but his attempted pass to Beto was overhit and the opening vanished. Jake Armstrong produced a superb tackle to snuff out another Stuttgart attack, while Röhl again got forward only to see his cross fail to find its target.

Beto, again, found himself in behind as the half drew to a close, but instead of attacking the space with conviction he checked back, the move lost momentum, and the whistle went on a half Everton could easily have dominated on the scoreboard. Instead, they trailed and had only their finishing to blame.

Penalty lifeline, defensive lapses

Alcaraz restarted the second half with Everton unchanged, but it was Stuttgart who seized control after the break. They forced Travers into more work, the goalkeeper standing up well before producing one of the saves of the afternoon from his own teammate. From a corner, Alcaraz’s defensive header flashed towards the Everton goal and Travers reacted instantly on his line to claw it away.

Dobling tried to drag Everton forward again, driving at his man with more purpose, but Beto found himself swallowed between two defenders. Keane conceded a free-kick and Stuttgart came again, pinning Everton back.

Dobling then strung together his best spell of the game, quickening his play and slipping a neat ball into Röhl, only for the cross to fizzle out. He pressed high to steal possession and win a free-kick in a promising area, but Everton chose the safe option and rolled it backwards.

Stuttgart almost punished that lack of ambition immediately, carving through and smashing a shot off the post with Travers beaten. It was a warning.

Vitalii Mykolenko then wasted a promising break with a dreadful cross that sailed harmlessly away. Keane responded with a precise long ball to Beto, who again did the hard part by bringing it down under pressure, only to lay it straight to a defender.

Dobling combined neatly with Armstrong, releasing the forward into the box, but the move ended without even a corner. Stuttgart, by contrast, strung together some slick, one-touch football at the other end and forced a corner that signalled a raft of changes for the home side around the hour mark.

They had to defend a couple of Everton corners in quick succession, surviving when a soft header drifted wide with substitute goalkeeper Andy King stranded.

Dyche turned to his own bench on 64 minutes, introducing Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Iliman Ndiaye and Lewis Barry for Röhl, Dobling and Beto. Ndiaye’s speed of thought was immediate, releasing Barry down the right with a sharp pass, but the winger found himself isolated and eventually lost the ball.

There was a scare when Branthwaite appeared to clutch at his thigh, possibly his knee or lower leg, but after treatment he assured the physios he was fine and played on.

Everton finally found a way back into the game from the penalty spot. A neat exchange of passes sent Beto racing through again and he went flying over the onrushing goalkeeper under minimal contact. The referee pointed to the spot, the decision as soft as they come. Beto stepped up and buried the penalty on 72 minutes, sending the keeper the wrong way and, at last, finding the net.

Stuttgart responded with more slick interplay, slicing through Everton once more and seeing a clever header clip the top of King’s bar. King then made a straightforward save from a wide effort as the game became increasingly stretched.

As the substitutions piled up, the rhythm disappeared. Everton lost cohesion in midfield, Stuttgart found space, and chances began to fall more regularly for the home side. One of them arrived courtesy of a poor Keane clearance, which came straight back with interest. The move was far too easy, the finish clinical, and Stuttgart restored a two-goal cushion that reflected their composure in front of goal.

Everton still had one last flurry. Deep into a surprisingly long spell of added time – the referee playing close to 10 extra minutes – a corner found Keane, whose header was saved on the line. Ndiaye pounced on the rebound, his follow-up blocked twice, one of those efforts possibly over the line before Stuttgart hacked clear.

Another late corner saw Dewsbury-Hall rise and glance a header agonisingly wide. That was the final act. The whistle went on a 3-1 defeat that felt, in pure chance creation, like a missed opportunity.

Finishing problem laid bare

For Dyche and his staff, the German tour ends with some positives: Hackney bedding in, Travers making a series of high-quality saves, Branthwaite leading with authority, and spells of sharp, incisive build-up play.

But the overarching takeaway is harder to ignore. Everton fashioned enough chances to leave Stuttgart with a handsome win. Instead, they return home with a scoreline that underlines the most pressing question of their pre-season: who, in this team, is going to score regularly when it really matters?