Battling Boro scrape through despite defeat

Middlesbrough 0 Vfb Stuttgart 1 (2-2 on agg. Middlesbrough win on away goals)

The Germans needed just 13 minutes to erase Boro’s 2-1 first-leg lead. Christian Tiffert fired past Mark Schwarzer as the visitors made a nonsense of the Teessiders’ home advantage.

Armin Veh’s side dominated the first half to leave Steve McClaren’s men facing an uphill struggle.

The home side rallied after the break and might have levelled through Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink but for an excellent block by goalkeeper Timo Hildebrand. It took a concerted rearguard action, however, in the dying minutes to see the home side through as the visitors went for broke.

Middlesbrough manger Steve McClaren claimed he had the tie he wanted after the aggregate win over set up a last-16 fixture with Italian side Roma. “That’s the one we wanted, it’s a big game,” said McClaren.

The Middlesbrough boss was disappointed his side were unable to put the tie with Stuttgart beyond doubt earlier by scoring a goal. “We should have scored a couple of times on the break,” he said.

“You do what you have to do to win the tie, it might not be pretty. We got the result, the right result that got us through.”

Veh’s side arrived on Teesside with nothing to lose, and needed just 13 minutes to level the aggregate scores and throw the tie wide open.

They had already gone close twice through livewire striker Danijel Ljuboja - the man whose late goal last week handed them a lifeline - when Tiffert ran onto his pass and poked the ball nonchalantly past Schwarzer with the outside of his right foot.

McClaren’s men did not muster a single serious attempt on goal in the first half. By contrast, the Germans cut through the Boro rearguard too often for comfort.

Boro were close to an equaliser on the night within a minute of the restart. Midfielder Lee Cattermole picked up possession inside his own half and slid the ball into the path of Hasselbaink, who seemed to get the benefit of a generous offside decision to run in on goal.

However, Hildebrand proved equal to the task to preserve his side’s lead.

The visitors continued to look more potent and Tiffert might have done better from a narrow angle on 55 minutes after Queudrue’s slip allowed him a sight of goal.

However, the home side were finally building up a head of steam and went desperately close on 63 minutes when Mendieta combined with Hasselbaink and side-stepped Hildebrand only to see Markus Babbel clear his left-foot shot off the line.

Schwarzer had to tip away a 72nd-minute Magnin free-kick as the Germans made their final push, and it took some determined defending to keep the visitors at bay, but the home side got there in the end.

MIDDLESBROUGH: Schwarzer, Davies, Riggott, Southgate, Queudrue, Parnaby, Cattermole, Mendieta (Ehiogu 86), Boateng, Downing (Taylor 90), Hasselbaink (Yakubu 86).

STUTTGART: Hildebrand, Hinkel, Babbel, Delpierre, Magnin (Hitzlsperger 80), Soldo, Tiffert, Meissner (Cacau 75), Gentner, Gronkjaer (Gomez 64), Ljuboja.

Referee: Eric Braamhaar (Holland).