Night of missed opportunities as Stuttgart fall to defeat in Basel | OneFootball

In front of a raucous atmosphere at St. Jakob-Park, it took Basel just three minutes to open the scoring. After Angelo Stiller was dispossessed in midfield, a careless backpass from Lorenz Assignon gave striker Albian Ajeti the chance to outstrength Ramon Hendriks, which he did magnificently, before rolling the ball under the onrushing Alexander Nübel.

Throughout the majority of the first half, Basel were passing the ball much better than they did last week in Freiburg, with veteran Xherdan Shaqiri at the heart of things both on the ball and from a leadership perspective.

The hosts came close to doubling their lead in the 18th minute, when Jeremy Agbonifo struck the outside of the post with a left-footed effort from the edge of the box.

Stuttgart were threatening, however, Basel were doing a fantastic job of preventing VfB from getting into the rhythm seen in recent weeks.

And the visitors wouldn't have had a better chance to level the scores than in the 33rd minute when Tiago Tomas was brought down inside the box, resulting in a Stuttgart penalty.

And Ermedin Demirovic will surely look upon the moment in hindsight as he stood 12 yards out through the entirety of a lengthy VAR check. After a period of cacophonous noise from the home support, the Bosnian forward stepped up and saw his penalty saved brilliantly by Marwin Hitz, who got a strong hand to the ball down to his right-hand side.

It was clear that Stuttgart were going to have to scrap their way through this one as they went into half-time a goal down.

Stuttgart began to control possession in the early stages of the second half, though Basel continued to look a threat on the break. VfB were now attacking the end containing upward of 7,000 Stuttgart supporters in search of an equaliser.

Chema Andres forced Hitz into a fantastic save after the Spaniard met a wonderful Maxmilian Mittelstädt cross. The young midfielder will feel he should have done better from six yards out, though.

VfB were the ones in control; however, Basel continued to remain resolute on home soil. Sebastian Hoeneß turned to his bench, with Chris Führich and Bilal El Khannouss thrown in.

Hitz made another huge save to deny Tiago Tomas in the 81st minute, pushing the Portuguese forward's effort wide for a Stuttgart corner. The veteran had continued to be a thorn in VfB's side all night.

And in the 84th minute, Basel put the icing on the cake with an excellent counterattack - something that they had been threatening throughout the match.

Veteran Shaqiri attempted to dink in a ball towards Moritz Broschinski; however, the ball would fly over Nübel and cross the line to give the hosts a 2-0 lead.

It would turn out to be a night of missed opportunities for Stuttgart, who saw their four-match winning run come to an end after being unable to find the back of the net despite a hatful of chances.