Ermedin Demirović powers Stuttgart past Leverkusen in Champions League race

Ermedin Demirović was the key figure in VfB Stuttgart's 3-1 win over Bayer Leverkusen, and not just because he scored. Stuttgart were behind within 43 seconds after Aleix García put Leverkusen ahead, but Demirović dragged the game back their way with six first-half shots, a won penalty and the kind of relentless centre-forward display that decided one of the biggest matches of their season.

Bundesliga.com summed it up clearly: "Demirović was the standout performer on the day and was voted Man of the Match with 51 per cent of the vote." That feels fair enough. Plenty of big performances are remembered for one finish or one decisive moment. This one was built on pressure from the opening half onward.

Why Demirović decided the game

The volume tells the story first. Bundesliga.com noted: "The Stuttgart striker had six shots in the first half alone, yet the score remained level heading into stoppage time." Stuttgart kept finding him because he was setting the tone of the match, pinning Leverkusen back and turning a bad start into a game they could control.

Demirović finished with a 7.9 rating, the best among Stuttgart players, and his goal took him to 12 Bundesliga goals for the season. This was not a freak afternoon from a supporting striker. It was a leading-forward performance in a match Stuttgart had to win.

His work without the ball mattered too, though the numbers need care. The source match report says he won 16 challenges, the most of any player on the pitch. The verified player stats in the brief separately show that he contested 12 duels and won four. Those are different measures, but together they still point in the same direction: Leverkusen struggled with his physical presence and his willingness to keep forcing actions.

That pressure led directly to Stuttgart's second goal. After Demirović won the penalty, Maximilian Mittelstädt chipped a panenka down the middle to make it 2-1 before half-time. It was a bold finish, but Demirović had done the hard part by creating the moment.

Stuttgart had more than one scorer, but Demirović set the terms

Stuttgart's attack did not rely on one player finishing everything. That is part of why this win matters going into the final day. Deniz Undav added the third in the 58th minute, and that goal took him to 19 Bundesliga goals for the season.

Undav's contribution was important, and Mittelstädt also finished with a strong 7.7 rating, but the shape of the game had already been established by Demirović. He was the one stretching Leverkusen early, absorbing contact, getting shots away and keeping the pressure high enough for Stuttgart's other attacking players to arrive in dangerous areas.

The team numbers back that up. Stuttgart generated 3.28 xGoals to Leverkusen's 0.50, and Leverkusen managed just four shots on target across the entire match. For a game that started with Leverkusen scoring inside the first minute, that swing is striking. Sebastian Hoeneß's side did not just recover from the early setback, they turned it into a match played on their terms.

What the result leaves for the final day

This was a big result in the table as well as on the pitch. Stuttgart are fourth in the Bundesliga with 61 points after 33 matches, so their Champions League fate remains in their own hands going into the final matchday.

That is why Demirović's display carries a bit more weight than a routine end-of-season starring role. Stuttgart needed their centre-forward to play like the main threat in a high-stakes game, and he did exactly that. If they finish the job on the final day, this 3-1 win over Leverkusen will look like the performance that kept everything alive.