Champions League
October 21, 2009
It was a tough night in Stuttgart as they went down 3-1 to Spanish club Sevilla. French defender Sebastien Squillaci scored a pair for the Spaniards to pile pressure on Stuttgart head coach Markus Babbel, whose team has had a dreadful start to the Bundesliga season.
Jesus Navas netted in the 55th minute for the Spaniards' third goal, while Brazilian midfielder Elson scored a consolation marker for Stuttgart midway through the second half.
With the defeat Stuttgart slips to third place in Group G with just two points from their three matches.
In the other Group G game, Romanian club Unirea Urziceni earned a surprise 4-1 victory away against Glasgow Rangers to move to second on four points. Rangers have earned just one point so far.
It was a dreary night in Glasgow even though Pedro Mendes opened the scoring for Rangers in the second minute. Bilasco equalized in the 32nd minute for Unirea, while Steven Davis had a chance to bag a second for Rangers just five minutes later, but instead had his penalty saved by Daniel Tudor.
Things only got worse in the second half as substitute Kyle Lafferty deflected a shot from Bruno Fernandes into his own goal in the 49th minute. A scant 10 minutes later Lee McCulloch scored an own goal after a wayward header. Brandan sealed the deal in the 65th minute with a free kick that took a deflection on its way into the goal.
In England, Argentine international Cesar Delgado scored in injury time to give French club Lyon a 2-1 victory against Liverpool in their Group E match.
Catalans trip up
In Barcelona, the defending European champions were upset 2-1 by Russian champions Rubin Kazan, who were given a great start in the second minute of play by midfielder Aleksandr Ryazantsev's long-range goal.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic netted for Barcelona just two minutes into the second half, but if the home fans had any hope that it would lead to more they were disappointed in the 72nd minute when Turkish international Gokdeniz Karadeniz went through alone to score. Yaha Toure nearly equalized for the Spaniards in the third minute of injury time with a powerful header which struck the upright and bounced back into play.
The night's other Group F game saw Inter Milan come back twice to eke out a 2-2 draw at home to Ukrainians Dynamo Kiev in a game in which both sides could have scored more goals than they did.
Group F remains wide open with Kiev, Kazan and Barcelona all on four points, while Inter Milan, whose string of winless games in the Champions League now stands at eight, are on three.
Work to do for Liverpool
It was a tough night for Liverpool, which saw its hopes of progressing to the knockout stages of the Champions League suffer a serious setback after Cesar Delgado hit a stoppage-time winner to hand Olympique Lyon a 2-1 victory.
The five-time European champions managed to overcome the loss of captain Steven Gerrard, who lasted just 24 minutes in his comeback game before limping off with an injury, to take a 41st minute lead via Yossi Benayoun.
But it was Lyon substitute Maxime Gonalons who headed in a 72nd minute equalizer which was followed by Delgado's late winner that sealed Liverpool's fate.
av/dm/dpa/Reuters
Editor: Chuck Penfold