Ermedin Demirovic chose Stuttgart’s birthday party to deliver the perfect gift.
On the night VfB Stuttgart celebrated the 133rd anniversary of their founding, the Bosnian forward hit a ruthless hat-trick in a 3-1 win over Viking FK at the MHP Arena, launching Sebastian Hoeness’ side into the Champions League league phase with exactly the kind of authority they had hoped for.
From nerves to control
Stuttgart did not stride into Europe with chest out and collar up. They eased their way in, a touch hesitant, feeling out a Viking side that looked sharper on the break than many inside the stadium might have expected.
Then Demirovic appeared.
On 20 minutes, Angelo Stiller slipped a clever ball into the box, threading it through a crowded central lane. Demirovic reacted first, darting across his marker and poking home from close range. One touch, one finish, one roar from the stands. Stuttgart had lift-off.
The lead barely had time to settle.
Just two minutes later, Viking broke with purpose. A swift counter cut through Stuttgart’s shape and Zlatko Tripic arrived to level, punishing the hosts’ looseness in transition. The away end erupted; the Bundesliga side suddenly looked vulnerable, their early control questioned.
That was the moment when a Champions League campaign can wobble before it really begins. It didn’t.
A 12-minute demolition
Instead, the response came with cold, clinical precision. Demirovic, again.
Working in tandem with Deniz Undav, Stuttgart’s front line began to stretch Viking’s back four, dragging defenders into awkward spaces and forcing mistakes. The combination paid off in devastating fashion.
For his second, Demirovic found a pocket in the box, took the chance early and thrashed his finish into the roof of the net. No hesitation, no half-measures. Just a striker playing with absolute conviction.
Viking staggered. Stuttgart pushed.
Undav and Demirovic kept interchanging positions, one dropping, one spinning in behind. The visitors never quite worked out who to track. When the third goal arrived, it felt inevitable.
Again set up by Undav, Demirovic collected the ball in the area, killed it with a confident first touch and showed the kind of composure that separates form players from merely hopeful ones. A quick adjustment, controlled footwork under pressure, and the ball was in the net. Hat-trick complete inside 12 breathless minutes. Stuttgart 3, Viking 1 before the interval, and the MHP Arena fully alive.
Demirovic later called it “a nice way to kick off the Champions League campaign,” downplaying the personal glory and pointing instead to the three points. The numbers told their own story.
Hoeness’ warning amid the celebrations
The second half never matched the chaos of that first spell, but it carried its own tension.
Viking refused to fold. They continued to threaten on the counter, exploiting exactly the moments that had annoyed Hoeness on the touchline and Demirovic in his post-match reflections. Stuttgart controlled territory and tempo, yet the Norwegian visitors still carved out situations that forced the home defence to scramble.
Demirovic, despite his treble, was in no mood to gloss over those lapses. He echoed his head coach’s view: this team, for all its attacking verve, still has work to do without the ball, especially when moves break down and opponents spring forward.
“We also know that we can do better in one or two situations and need to tighten up in our defensive transitions,” he admitted, a sharp reminder that early wins in the league phase can be deceptive if the details are ignored.
Stuttgart, though, managed the closing stages with a maturity that has not always been their hallmark in Europe. Undav squandered late chances to add a fourth, but by then the pattern was clear: Hoeness’ side had control, Viking had lost their sting, and the home crowd could already start thinking about the road ahead.
A statement from Stuttgart’s new spearhead
This was more than a routine home win dressed up by a hat-trick. It felt like a statement about Stuttgart’s attacking hierarchy.
Demirovic’s movement, his understanding with Undav, and the sheer certainty of his finishing offered Hoeness exactly what every coach craves at this level: a forward in ruthless form just as the fixtures pile up across domestic and European fronts.
The message to the rest of the league phase is simple enough. Stuttgart have a striker who can decide games on his own. The question now is whether the team behind him can match that edge when the opponents grow stronger and the margins grow thinner.
