Stuttgart Defeats Everton 3-1 in Final Pre-Season Match

Everton walked out into the heat of the MHPArena and produced almost everything you want from a pre-season performance – control, intensity, sharp pressing, waves of chances. Everything, that is, except the part that actually wins football matches.

They lost 3-1 to VfB Stuttgart, a scoreline that flattered the hosts and brutally exposed the one problem Sean Dyche cannot ignore: this team simply cannot finish.

Bright start, blunt edge

Jarrad Branthwaite, wearing the armband, led Everton out for the final game of their two-match tour of Germany. The early pattern was familiar. Stuttgart kept the ball, Everton chased and felt their way into the contest. When the visitors did break, they looked dangerous, Beto bullying his way forward before a heavy final touch surrendered the opening.

At the other end, O’Brien was forced to concede a corner that almost brought the opener, a narrow-angle shot flashing wide. Lewis Dobbin – Dibling in this report – carried the ball forward tentatively, still searching for rhythm, while Hayden Hackney overreached with an ambitious forward pass that never looked on and simply invited another Stuttgart attack.

After 10 minutes, Everton began to bite into midfield duels and see more of the ball. A gift from the Stuttgart goalkeeper put Carlos Alcaraz cleanly into possession, only for Beto to lash the chance well wide. It set the tone: promising turnovers, poor decisions, wasted positions.

Hackney then sliced a decent opening just wide, his shot skidding past the angle of post and bar. The warning went unheeded. Stuttgart had been probing from the first whistle and the breakthrough felt inevitable. It came when Nartey thumped a fierce drive into the roof of Mark Travers’s net, the ball screaming over the keeper and underlining the difference in ruthlessness.

Misses that defied belief

An early reshuffle followed as Michael Keane replaced Iroegbunam, who appeared to pick up an injury, cutting short his partnership with O’Brien at centre-back. Dibling surged into the area and looked to have been fouled, but nothing was given. Stuttgart immediately raced upfield and blazed over.

Branthwaite, eager to lead from the back, forced a break from nowhere, Alcaraz driving the move and Röhl seeing his effort blocked. Beto then attempted a spectacular bicycle kick that never threatened to trouble anyone except the advertising boards.

The chances kept coming. Alcaraz escaped down the left and drilled a low, vicious cross that Beto was a stud’s length away from converting. Dibling improved, carrying the ball with more conviction, but his final delivery lacked pace and was easily headed away.

Then came a remarkable spell of pressure from Everton that should have buried the game. Cross after cross, cut-back after cut-back, yet nobody in blue could apply the final touch. Dibling again broke inside but delayed his cross a fraction too long, allowing a defender to smother Alcaraz’s shot. Röhl then picked out Beto with a superb ball, only for the striker to choose a hopeful cross towards the far post instead of shooting, leaving Dibling with no chance of reaching it.

The nadir arrived from a Travers clearance. The keeper launched long, Beto climbed superbly to flick on, Röhl met it and returned a perfect cross. Six yards out, unmarked, Beto swung and connected with nothing but air. It was harder to miss. Somehow, he did.

Everton kept coming. Röhl found Dibling, whose low effort forced a smart save at the near post. From the resulting corner, Dibling’s delivery was ideal, only for Beto to head over when a simple glance would have done.

Stuttgart reminded Everton of the danger at the other end when Mittelstädt hammered a rising 25-yard effort over the bar. Keane then made a vital block to turn another attack behind. From the corner, a towering header looked destined for the top corner until Travers flung himself across his goal and clawed it away. He followed that with another outstanding stop, an outstretched foot diverting a low shot that seemed certain to creep in.

Everton still had time to waste more promising positions. Alcaraz released Röhl on the right but his pass towards Beto was wildly overhit. Armstrong produced a superb tackle to break up a Stuttgart move, Röhl again got forward, and again failed to pick out his striker.

Right on half-time, Beto broke clear once more, then inexplicably checked back, the chance dissolving as quickly as it had appeared. Everton walked off a goal down, but with enough opportunities spurned to have been out of sight.

Stuttgart turn the screw

Alcaraz got the second half under way with no changes from Dyche, but it was Stuttgart who emerged sharper. Travers stayed busy, making a series of strong saves, including one from his own man when Alcaraz’s header from a corner had to be clawed off the line.

Dibling, to his credit, kept driving at his full-back, yet Beto found himself swallowed between two defenders. Keane conceded a free-kick, Stuttgart built again, and Everton’s forward play kept breaking down at the final ball. When Dibling did move it more quickly, sliding Röhl in down the flank, the cross again failed to find a blue shirt.

Dibling nicked the ball high up and won a free-kick, only for Everton to retreat and recycle backwards. Stuttgart then carved through and rattled the post with Travers beaten, a reminder of how thin the margin remained.

At the other end, a rare opening was thrown away by a dreadful cross from Vitalii Mykolenko. Keane’s long pass picked out Beto neatly, the striker powered into space, then simply rolled the ball to a defender.

Everton’s right side sparked briefly as Dibling slipped in Armstrong, but the winger could not even win a corner. Stuttgart replied with slick, one-touch football that brought only a corner, and that set-piece signalled wholesale changes for the hosts around the hour mark. From Everton’s perspective, the second ball from a later corner produced a soft, looping header with substitute keeper King stranded, only for it to drift away from danger.

Dyche turned to his own bench. Ndiaye immediately showed more urgency, releasing Barry quickly down the right, though the youngster was isolated and lost out. A moment of concern followed when Branthwaite clutched at his thigh – or possibly his knee – before reassuring the physios he was fine to continue.

Beto scores, then Everton unravel

Everton finally found a way back when neat combination play sent Beto racing through again. He hurdled the onrushing goalkeeper and somehow emerged with a penalty from minimal contact. Soft, to say the least, but the referee pointed to the spot. Beto stepped up and buried it, sending the keeper the wrong way on 72 minutes.

The goal should have changed the mood. Instead, Stuttgart responded with another spell of crisp, incisive passing. Hackney produced a desperate clearance to cut out one move, then a glancing header clipped the top of King’s bar. The substitute keeper then dealt calmly with a routine shot from a wide angle.

The game broke up under the weight of substitutions. Patterns disappeared, rhythm went with them, yet Stuttgart still found more clarity in the final third. One move ended with a shot sailing over, but Everton failed to heed the warning. A poor Keane clearance dropped straight back onto them, the ball was worked back into the area, and the third goal was dispatched far too easily.

Everton still had late chances to dress the scoreline. A deep corner found Keane, whose header was saved on the line. Ndiaye’s follow-up was blocked twice, one effort looking suspiciously close to crossing before Stuttgart hacked clear. Another corner arrived deep into an oddly long 10 minutes of stoppage time, Dewsbury-Hall attacking the delivery and watching his header bounce just wide.

The whistle eventually came down on a 3-1 defeat that told a familiar story. As a workout, it ticked plenty of boxes: fitness, tempo, resilience under pressure, standout saves from Travers, flashes from Dibling and Röhl, and leadership from Branthwaite. But the glaring issue lingered over everything.

Everton are creating enough chances to win games comfortably. Until someone in blue starts finishing them, that won’t matter.