Top-flight VfB Stuttgart have beaten second-tier SV Hamburg 3-0 at home in their Bundesliga play-off first leg to take a commanding lead in the tie.
The second leg is in Hamburg on Monday, but Stuttgart are now huge favourites to stay in the Bundesliga.
Konstantinos Mavropanos headed in unchallenged inside the very first minute and more dreadful Hamburg defending left Serhou Guirassy one-on-one but he shot straight at goalkeeper Daniel Heuer Fernandes.
On-loan Guirassy, who had his buy option from Stade Rennes triggered by Stuttgart on Wednesday, then had a similarly weak penalty saved as Hamburg looked to have got away with their porous defending.
But Josha Vagnoman was given the freedom of the Mercedes-Benz Arena to score on 51 minutes and it was third time lucky for Guirassy when he nodded in another corner.
“We have set a good base for the second game but there is 90 minutes to come. We’ve got to stay focused,” Stuttgart midfielder Chris Fuhrich told Sky. “We could have scored more goals.”
It got worse for Hamburg when Anssi Suhonen was sent off for a thigh-high studs-up tackle nine minutes after coming off the bench.
Hamburg still looked stunned from Sunday’s end to the second division season, where they thought they had been promoted automatically only for Heidenheim to score two goals deep into injury time and seal a Bundesliga spot instead.
“3-0 is a tough result, but we still believe,” said Heuer Fernandes. “We have to stay brave. In football everything is possible.
“Sunday has nothing to do with today, we had clear heads.”
Hamburg also lost to Hertha Berlin in last year’s play-off between the third-bottom Bundesliga team and third-placed second-division side.
Stuttgart, the 2007 champions who have been relegated twice since that triumph but twice bounced straight back up, went into the play-off wary.
They were the last top-flight side to lose the play-off, going down to Union Berlin in 2019.
Australian Associated Press