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Stuttgart swept Unirea Urziceni aside to exchange places with the Romanians in Group F and take their place in the knockout stages of the Champions League thanks to a 3-1 win. The game was over as a contest after just 11 minutes as goals from Ciprian Marica, Christian Trasch and Pavel Pogrebnyak put the home side well on their way to victory. Antonio Semedo grabbed a consolation in the 46th minute, but it was nothing more than that as Stuttgart deservedly won to seal their place in the last 16. It was all change for Stuttgart this week with Markus Babbel sacked on Monday and being replaced by Christian Gross less than an hour after Babbel left the club's premises. Gross wasted no time in getting to know his team, summoning them for their first training session under the floodlights late on Monday evening. There, he made it clear how severe the situation was and what his expectations were, but he probably did not quite imagine such a reaction. Stuttgart had sealed victory and booked their place in the last 16 within 11 minutes at the Mercedes-Benz Arena. Romanian forward Marica nodded them in front in the fifth minute as the Urziceni defenders showed their first signs of frailty, allowing Sami Khedira all the time in the world to lift the ball into the centre for Marica. Trasch added the second in the eighth minute, again taking advantage of the room allowed to him by the Urziceni defenders to race almost 40 yards before firing his shot, with a slight deflection, past the Romanians' goalkeeper Giedrius Arlauskis. And the game was effectively over three minutes later when Khedira's low cross from the right wing was met by Pogrebnyak, who shot through the legs of Arlauskis from close range. Urziceni failed to show any reaction to being three behind and the Bundesliga side kept control of the game. Clearly, Urziceni coach Dan Petrescu, linked with the Scotland job this week, chose the right words at half time as the Romanians emerged to score immediately. Semedo used his pace to get past Arthur Boka and, having entered the penalty area, he placed his shot just to the right of Jens Lehmann. Stuttgart knew they could not rest on their laurels and they moved up a gear, creating several chances to score a fourth. Khedira had a good shot saved in the 48th minute before the lively Timo Gebhardt grazed the outside of the post with a shot. Gross sent Germany international Cacau on for the final 10 minutes and he went close to scoring twice as Stuttgart deservedly took their place alongside Bayern Munich as the second German representative in the last 16 of the Champions League. |
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