Stuttgart Defeats Everton 3-1 in Final Tour Match
Everton walked out into the sun at the MHPArena with a chance to finish their German tour on a high. They left with a 3-1 defeat, a bruised sense of confidence in front of goal, and the nagging feeling that this could become a theme of the season if nothing changes.
Hayden Hackney started in midfield, but there was no sign of new signing Christian Nørgaard, who did not travel. Jarrad Branthwaite, wearing the armband, led out a side patched together again at the back, with Lewis O’Brien alongside him in central defence and Tim Röhl filling in at right-back. James Garner, still recovering from minor groin surgery, watched on.
Bright intent, blunt edge
Stuttgart took early control of the ball and pushed Everton back, moving it crisply and forcing Branthwaite into an important early intervention to cut out a dangerous break. That challenge sparked Everton’s first real moment, Beto muscling his way upfield before a heavy final touch handed the ball back to the hosts.
O’Brien then had to concede a corner that almost punished the visitors, a narrow-angle shot flashing wide. Lewis Dobbin — here listed as Dibling — tried to carry Everton up the pitch but looked short of conviction on the ball.
Hackney attempted to thread an ambitious pass that was never really on, and Stuttgart sprang forward again. After ten minutes, though, Everton began to get a foothold. Carlos Alcaraz seized on a gift from the home goalkeeper, only for Beto to drag a poor effort well wide. Everton were turning the ball over well in midfield, then promptly giving it away again.
When they did click, the football was sharp. A neat move ended with Hackney slicing a shot just the wrong side of the angle. The warning signs at the other end had been there from the first whistle, and Stuttgart finally cashed in. Nartey strode onto a loose ball and lashed a rising drive into the roof of the net beyond Mark Travers, who had no chance.
Soon after, an early change: Michael Keane replaced the injured Tim Iroegbunam, cutting short the experimental O’Brien–Branthwaite pairing. Everton’s frustration grew when Dibling burst into the area, appeared to be clipped, and got nothing. Stuttgart went straight up the pitch and wasted a good opening of their own.
Branthwaite then drove Everton out from the back, Alcaraz leading the counter and Röhl seeing his shot blocked. Beto tried an acrobatic bicycle kick that came to nothing. Alcaraz found space and whipped in a low, dangerous cross that Beto was inches away from converting.
The pattern was set: promising approach play, no finish. Dibling improved as the half wore on but floated a tame cross that was easily headed clear. A flurry of half-chances followed with blue shirts in the right areas but no one able to apply the decisive touch.
Röhl picked out Beto with a fine ball, and the striker, instead of shooting, tried to find Dibling at the far post. The cross was beyond him. Then came the miss of the afternoon. Travers launched long to Beto, who cushioned a superb header into Röhl’s path. The return cross was perfect, the goal gaping, and Beto swung at fresh air. It looked harder to miss.
Everton kept coming. Röhl’s cross found Dibling, whose low shot forced a save at the near post. From the resulting corner, Dibling’s delivery was on the money but Beto headed over when a glanced touch would have done.
Stuttgart reminded Everton of their own threat as Mittelstädt hammered over from distance, before Keane blocked another effort behind. From the corner, a towering header arrowed towards the top corner until Travers flung himself across to claw it away. He followed up with another excellent low save from a driven effort as the home side enjoyed their best spell.
Everton still carved out moments. Alcaraz released Röhl, but the final pass to Beto was overhit. Josh Armstrong produced a superb tackle to snuff out another Stuttgart break. Röhl again advanced down the right but could not pick out his centre-forward. Beto broke clear once more, hesitated, and the chance evaporated. Half-time arrived with Everton trailing 1-0 in a game they could, with any composure, have been leading comfortably.
Penalty lifeline, familiar collapse
Alcaraz restarted the second half with Everton unchanged, but Stuttgart seized the initiative again. Travers was quickly back in action, making a series of sharp saves, including one remarkable stop on his own line after Alcaraz inadvertently headed towards his own goal from a corner.
Dibling showed more aggression, driving forward, yet Beto was swallowed up between two defenders. Keane was pulled up for a foul as Stuttgart continued to probe. Dibling persisted, beating his man but delaying the lay-off until the move died.
When he moved the ball quicker, Everton looked far more dangerous. A neat Dibling pass sent Röhl away down the right, though the cross failed to find a target. Dibling then nicked possession and won a free-kick, only for Everton to retreat and recycle the ball backwards. Stuttgart responded with a fierce strike that crashed off the post, Travers beaten this time by the woodwork.
The visitors continued to waste promising positions. A swift move down the left ended with a dreadful cross from Vitalii Mykolenko. Keane’s long ball then picked out Beto, who did the hard work before calmly laying the ball straight to a defender.
Dibling slipped Armstrong in on the overlap, but the forward could not even force a corner. Stuttgart’s response was slick and incisive, a spell of one-touch passing ending in a corner that signalled a raft of changes for the home side on the hour mark. They then had to defend two Everton corners in quick succession, the second producing a soft header with substitute goalkeeper João King stranded, the ball dropping wide.
Sean Dyche — or at least Everton’s staff — turned to the bench as well. Röhl, Dibling, Alcaraz and Beto all made way for Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Iliman Ndiaye, Lewis George and Tom Barry respectively, with later changes bringing on Nathan Patterson, Youssef Aznou and King.
Ndiaye injected pace, releasing Barry down the right, but the youngster ran out of support and lost the ball. There was a brief scare when Branthwaite clutched at his leg, possibly knee or thigh, but after treatment he insisted he was fine.
Then, out of almost nothing, Everton were handed a route back. A neat exchange saw Beto surge into the area, collide with the goalkeeper in what looked a very soft decision, and win a penalty. He picked himself up and buried the spot-kick on 72 minutes, sending the keeper the wrong way. On the balance of his earlier misses, it felt like the least he owed his side.
Stuttgart, stung, went back on the front foot. Hackney produced a desperate clearance to cut out one clever move that seemed destined to end in a goal. Another sweeping attack ended with a header brushing the top of King’s crossbar. The substitute keeper then made a routine save from a wide effort.
As the changes mounted, the game lost shape. Stuttgart still carried the greater threat, flashing one effort over before capitalising on Everton’s sloppiness. Keane’s poor clearance dropped straight to a red shirt, the return ball sliced through a disorganised back line, and the third goal was rolled in far too easily.
Everton still had time to miss again. Deep into a strangely extended period of stoppage time, a corner found Keane, whose header was saved on the line. Ndiaye’s follow-up was blocked twice, one attempt perhaps crossing the line before being hacked clear. From another late corner, Dewsbury-Hall attacked the delivery and saw his header bounce just wide.
The final whistle drew a line under a 3-1 defeat that could have looked very different with sharper finishing. As a pre-season workout, it ticked plenty of boxes: intensity, chances created, defensive questions asked. But the “glaring incompetence in front of goal,” as the mood around Everton will quietly acknowledge, is no longer just a footnote. With the season edging closer, it is starting to look like the central storyline.
