Two first-half goals from Timo Gebhart and Alex Hleb gave the Swabians a first-leg lead in their Champions League play-off in Romania.
VfB Stuttgart will take a two-goal lead into the return leg at the Mercedes-Benz Arena after goals from Timo Gebhart and Aliaksandr Hleb saw them beat FC Timisoara in their Champions League qualifier.
The opening minutes saw both sides probing at the other with Stuttgart showing a little more initiative going forward. Four minutes in and Portuguese referee Benquerenca dished out an early yellow card to Alexa after the midfielder hauled down Ciprian Marica, who was on a good counter-attack.
The first half-chance fell to Stuttgart on seven minutes when Alex Hleb and Pavel Pogrebnyak combined well to fashion a deep cross, but Timo Gebhart couldn’t get a proper head on it and nodded the ball over the bar.
With the two defences dominating, the visitors then created the next good chance. Pogrebnyak won the ball well on the edge of the penalty area, before laying the ball off to Sami Khedira. The German U-21 international fired in a good shot, but keeper Costel Pantimilon did well to tip the ball just over the bar.
A minute later and Thomas Hitzlsperger fizzed a shot just wide with a 20 meter shot.
Stuttgart were getting on top, but Timisoara showed that they couldn’t be ignored when Mathieu Delpierre had to head away from Bucur at the last minute following an inviting cross from Arman Karamyan.
However, with 27 minutes on the clock, the German side took the lead via the penalty spot. Ciprian Marica was played through and was taken down by the Timisoara keeper. Midfielder Timo Gebhart stepped up and dispatched the spot-kick to put the Swabians 1-0 up.
Two minutes later and Stuttgart doubled their lead with a superb strike from Aliaksandr Hleb. The Belarus international set off on a mazy dribble, which saw him beat six players before curling a shot into the bottom corner from a tight angle.
The Romanians however very nearly got a goal back very quickly just a minute later. A cross from the right found Lukas Magera in a central position, but the Czech headed wide with Jens Lehmann berating his defense.
Stuttgart seemed to have taken their foot off the pedal, and were unlucky that the hosts didn’t punish them for their laxness and they went in two goals up at the interval.
Timisoara coach Ioan Sabau sent on Balazs Borbely at the start of the second-half for Cristian Scutaru. The Romanians continued to press looking for a goal but just lacked the bite necessary to find a way through.
Gheorghe Bucur and Pogrebnyak had shots on goal, but nothing to overly worry either goalkeeper, although full-back did force Jens Lehmann into a save on 67 minutes.
The rest of the second-period coasted towards the end with neither side really creating a chance good enough to trouble the back of the net. The two way goals hand the German side a healthy advantage to take into the return leg in Stuttgart.
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