Trainer Bruno Labbadia made three changes to the eleven that started in the defeat to Nürnberg, with Cacau, Khalid Boulahrouz and new signing Shinji Okazaki replacing Pavel Pogrebnyak, Patrick Funk and Elson respectively.

It was an entertaining and high quality game of football right from the kick-off. With just three minutes played, a deflected martin Harnik cross struck the hosts crossbar. The home side had distinct problems creatively during the first 45 minutes, not least due to a well drilled Stuttgart defence. With a quarter hour on the clock, Okazaki jinked past two defenders and got a shot away to test Benfica keeper Roberto. The true highlight of the first period then came in the 21st minute. Tamas Hajnal played a wonderful pass through to Harnik, who controlled the ball expertly and flicked delicately over the Benfica keeper to give VfB a 1-0 lead. There were further chances at both ends before the break but Bruno Labbadia’s men hung on to their narrow advantage going in at half time.

Benfica turn the tides

In the second half, Portugal’s second placed club upped the tempo and quickly penned VfB back into their own half of the pitch. The hosts created a string of chances but Coentrao, Pablo Aimar and Nicolas Gaitan were all denied by magnificent saves by Sven Ulreich. The visitors held out until the 70th minute, but then, not even the impressive Ulreich could do anything to prevent the equaliser. A headed clearance by Bulahrouz fell perfectly for Oscar Cordozo, who snapped his shot on the turn into the bottom corner of the net. Back on level terms, Benfica continued to pile on the pressure and eventually took the lead with nine minutes to go. A wickedly deflected shot from Franco Jara struck the underside of the bar and bounced down behind the goal-line to make it 2-1 for the Portuguese side. Shortly before the end of the game, VfB came agonisingly close to levelling the scores again, when substitute Elson cracked a 25 meter free kick against the foot of the post, but, in the end, VfB had to accept their fate and a narrow 1-2 defeat.