STUTTGART - Stuttgart's Champions League dream was all but extinguished on Tuesday after they slipped to a toothless defeat to Lyon at the Gottlieb-Daimler Stadium.
In a Group E match that pitted the Bundesliga title-holders against the reigning six-time Ligue 1 champions, it was the French outfit that took all the points thanks to second-half strikes by Fabio Santos and Karim Benzema.
Stuttgart's third loss from as many Champions League outings this term leaves coach Armin Veh looking increasingly precarious at the helm.
The German champions are already 16 points behind the pace-setters in the Bundesliga and just one point above the drop zone, and this latest Champions League defeat will only ratchet up the pressure on the beleaguered coach.
Alain Perrin's Lyon, meanwhile, seem to have turned a corner, and their first win in this season's Champions League comes after they claimed outright leadership of Ligue 1 at the weekend.
After a cagey opening quarter-hour when neither team looked in danger of threatening the opposition goal, the hosts finally registered the first attempt on 17 minutes when Silvio Meissner headed over from Alexander Farnerud's centre.
By now the game was opening up and just two minutes later Lyon enjoyed their first meaningful effort on Raphael Schafer's goal as Anderson's header from a corner sailed just wide of the left upright.
Pavel Pardo's free-kick from 25 yards was then comfortably dealt with by Les Gones custodian Remy Vercoutre, while less than 60 seconds later Kim Kallstrom brought the visiting fans to their feet with a long-range effort that drew a sprawling stop from Schafer.
The game continued apace for the remainder of the half, and Farnerud might have sent Stuttgart in with the lead at the interval but saw his low drilled shot from 20 yards gathered expertly by the diving Vercoutre.
The best chance of the half fell to Lyon, but when it arrived on 40 minutes, Benzema - the hottest property in French football at present with 11 goals in 11 Ligue 1 games - miscued woefully.
Hatem Ben Arfa was the architect, splitting the home defence with a slide-rule pass, but Benzema was not equal to the assist and sent the ball trickling tamely wide as he made a mess of an attempted lob over Schafer.
And there was still time for Ben Arfa to carve open the Stuttgart defence again, this time Sidney Govou picking up a delightful through ball only to be denied by a brilliant block by the advancing Schafer.
Having dominated for large swathes of the first period, Lyon finally got the reward their attacking play deserved on 55 minutes.
Juninho's corner was only partially cleared by Stuttgart's Ricardo Osorio, the ball running kindly for Fabio Santos, who fired in a low shot from the edge of the box that took a deflection off the hapless Osorio on its way into the net.
France international Benzema might have doubled the Lyon advantage midway through the half but was off target from 12 yards, while Sebastien Squillaci might have done better with a headed opportunity from Juninho's cross two minutes later.
But on 79 minutes the French outfit did get the second goal they deserved as Sami Khedira's low centre from the right was cheekily laid off by Govou's back-heel into the path of Benzema, who took his time to control in front of goal before finishing low to Schafer's left.
