Champions League
February 24, 2010
Stuttgart made the most of the capacity home crowd at Mercedes-Benz Arena, starting the match energetically and taking it to Barcelona.
The early initiative paid dividends when Brazilian forward Cacau headed in a perfect Timo Gebhart center ball from the right on the 25-minute mark.
The Germans continued to press Barcelona's defense and came close to snatching goals on three more occasions, in addition to an appeal for handball by Barca defender Gerard Pique.
At the outset of the second half, Barcelona came out a different team and pulled level within seven minutes through frontman Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
The opportunity came when Stuttgart failed to clear a corner and the ball came back in for Pique, who headed down for Ibrahimovic to volley home. The initial shot was parried by Stuttgart keeper Jens Lehmann, but Ibrahimovic was able to knock the rebound over the goal line.
The Catalans dominated the remainder of the clash, a fact Stuttgart coach Christian Gross seized upon.
"We should have scored a second goal in the first half," Gross said following the match. "We had clear chances."
Barcelona midfielder Andreas Iniesta was upbeat about the result, saying he was confident the ball was now in Barcelona's court.
"We knew that it was going to be a difficult game," said the Spain international. "And the truth is that they really made us suffer in the first half.
"Now we have the tie in our favor, but there are still 90 minutes left to play."
In Tuesday night's other Champions League clash, French club Bordeaux defeated Greek giants Olympiacos 0-1 away from home. Second-leg matches are to be held from March 9.
dfm/dpa/afp
Editor: Rick Demarest