Slovan Bratislava 1-3 Stuttgart: Leweling brace keeps visitors´ play-off hopes alive

Jamie Leweling’s first-half brace kept Stuttgart in the hunt for a Champions League play-off place following their comfortable 3-1 win over lowly Slovan Bratislava.

The result moved Stuttgart up to 21st on 10 points, though the surrounding sides, which include Real Madrid, Celtic and Manchester City, are all in action on Wednesday.

The Bundesliga side took the lead in the 11th minute when Deniz Undav selflessly squared the ball for Leweling to finish past Dominik Takac.

The visitors pulled further clear soon after when a long punt forward was gathered by Enzo Millot who saw his effort saved by Takac, but Leweling was on hand to tuck away the rebound, with the goal eventually given following a VAR review for offside.

Despite squandering glorious chances to extend their lead through Maximilian Mittelstadt and Undav, Stuttgart were pegged back with five minutes remaining.

Bratislava substitutes Tigran Barseghyan and Idjessi Metsoko combined brilliantly to reduce the deficit, with the latter squeezing a left-footed effort past Alexander Nubel.

But less than two minutes later, Stuttgart sealed the win when Mittelstadt picked out Fabian Rieder, who took his time before tucking the ball into the net.

With defeat, second-bottom Bratislava became the first side in Champions League history to lose their first seven matches in the competition.

Data Debrief: Back-to-back

Stuttgart have registered consecutive Champions League wins for a third time, also doing so during 2003-04 (four in a row) and their final two group games in 2009-10.

But their triumph was inspired by Leweling, who netted his first ever Champions League goals, while he scored more goals in the game (two) than he had in his first 18 matches in all competitions this season (one).

Leweling’s two goals inside 36 minutes were also the earliest in an away European match that a Stuttgart player has scored twice, with his first goal teed up the influential Undav.

The former Brighton forward has now been involved in more goals in all competitions than any other Stuttgart player since the start of last season (28 goals, 12 assists). He’s also one of only seven Bundesliga players with 40 or more goals and assists combined in that time.