Stuttgart have made it through to the group stage of this season’s Uefa Cup following a rather poor performance at the Mercedes Benz Arena. The Swabians went 2-0 down to Varna before late goals Hitzlsperger and Gomez secured their progress.Stuttgart controlled the game in the opening period but were unable to create any real clear-cut chances. Varna sat deep and the hosts lacked the tempo to force the game and get beyond their defensive line.
Their first real chance came on 20 minutes when Lanig, Khedira and Gomez combined well, but the German striker was denied by the Bulgarian keeper.
It took the visitors half an hour before they came out of their shells and Hristov had their first shot on goal. The other real moment of note in a dull first half was a penalty claim from the Home side after Marica went down under a challenge from keeper Ilchev, but referee Mike Dean waved the appeals away. class="fullpost">
The second half however got off to a much quicker and eventful start with the away side scoring after 47 minutes. A back-pass from Tasci went past a surprised Jens Lehmann and Yurukov raced onto it to slot home making the aggregate score 2-2.
Soon after, Varna had a great chance to make it 2-0, but Yurukov missed after another defensive error from VfB.
Then on 79 minutes Varna looked to have sealed a win when Rusev sent a superb direct free kick into Lehmann’s goal to put the guests in the driving seat.
Stuttgart were on the brink of elimination when captain Thomas Hitzlsperger fired in following a corner from Rudy on 81 minutes.
With the clock then ticking down, and the Bulgarian side looking like they were going through on the away goals rule, Mario Gomez popped up in the 94th minute to deny them. Super Mario rose the highest inside the penalty area to head in a Cacau corner and save his side an embarrassing Uefa Cup 1st round exit.
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