With just one defeat in their last 10 competitive matches, Stuttgart would have been confident of continuing their form and seeing off a 2. Bundesliga side with ease, but Kiel’s defeats of both Wolfsburg and Hamburg to reach this stage showed they were no pushovers, and the hosts indeed had the best of the early chances.
Adrian Kaprálik’s shot from a tight angle after being sent through by Ivan Nekic was diverted out of play by Stuttgart stopper Alexander Nubel, before Andu Kelati worked some space before blasting over the bar.
The visitors began to improve from there, but only a couple of wayward headers from Deniz Undav were all they had to show for their efforts prior to the interval.
They finally looked to have found familiar form after the restart, and were rewarded just before the hour mark with the opener. Bilal El Khannouss’ free-kick delivery was headed back across the face of goal by Atakan Karazor, allowing Undav to brilliantly flick into the far corner from among the six-yard box melee.
It initially looked like that would spur Stuttgart on to more, with El Khannouss going close, but Kiel weathered the storm and began to have opportunities for a leveller.
They came closest when the lively Phil Harres played Aldin Jakupovic through with a clever backheel, but the Slovenian January signing pulled his eventual effort wide of the far post.
Blue shirts poured forward in the final minutes in desperate search of a goal to take things to extra-time, but that only resulted in Chris Fuhrich breaking away on the counter, rounding Timon Weiner and tapping into the empty net.
And Stuttgart weren’t even done there, as Karazor was felled by Weiner in stoppage time, but landed on the ball and somehow pushed it into the net anyway.
Kiel thus failed to replicate their 2020/21 run to the semi-finals of this competition, and now only Hertha Berlin can make it a third successive Pokal final with a non-Bundesliga participant.
After waiting 28 years for a fourth Pokal title, Stuttgart will now be laser-focused on repeating the feat this year, but will have to also juggle the UEFA Europa League knockout stages and their push for a top-four spot in the Bundesliga as part of a packed schedule.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Deniz Undav (Stuttgart)