VfB Stuttgart are unbeaten on the road in this season’s UEFA Champions League but will face their toughest test yet tonight against an FC Barcelona side with a fearsome record against German visitors. The Camp Nou has proved an inhospitable place for visiting German sides and FC Barcelona will hope it remains so when VfB Stuttgart come to town for the second leg of their last-16 tie, uefa.com comments. Stuttgart are unbeaten on their travels in this season’s UEFA Champions League but now face a Barcelona side seeking a ninth straight home win against Bundeliga opposition.
Barcelona recorded home and away wins against Stuttgart when the clubs met in the UEFA Champions League group stage in 2007/08. The Spanish side prevailed 2-0 in Germany on 2 October 2007, Carles Puyol (53) and Lionel Messi (67) the scorers. Antonio Da Silva gave Stuttgart a third-minute lead in the return on 12 December, but Barcelona hit back to win 3-1 through goals from Giovani Dos Santos (36), Samuel Eto’o (57) and Ronaldinho (67). Barcelona finished top of the group and Stuttgart bottom.
Bordeaux a barrier
to olympiacos ambitions
FC Girondins de Bordeaux have won all three home games in this season’s competition, conceding just a single goal, so visitors Olympiacos FC will have to pull out all the stops tonight to turn round their first-leg loss.
The French champions earned a sixth successive victory in the competition with a 1-0 triumph in Piraeus on 23 February thanks to Michaël Ciani’s header in first-half added time. It was the fourth successive UEFA Champions League match in which Bordeaux had kept a clean sheet. Bordeaux were the most successful side in the group stage with five wins and a draw. The only points dropped came in a 1-1 draw at Juventus on Matchday 1 while two goals conceded was also the best record of the 32 competing teams. Olympiacos have lost their last two away meetings with French opponents, going down 2-1 against both AS Saint-Etienne in last season’s UEFA Cup round of 32 and Olympique Lyonnais in the 2005/06 UEFA Champions League group stage. Overall they have lost seven of their ten competitive fixtures in France and six of the last seven. Last night, after the closing of this edition, the games Sevilla v CSKA Moskva and Chelsea v Internazionale took place in CL last 16.
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