German Bundesliga: Much-needed victory for Stuttgart

Stuttgart closed the gap on fellow strugglers Hamburg thanks to a 1-0 win at the HSV Arena on Tuesday night.

Florian Klein scored the only goal of the game in the first half as Huub Stevens managed to get one over his former side and lift his current club off the foot of the Bundesliga.

Stuttgart ended the game with 10 men after Georg Niedermeier was shown a red card early in the second half, but their win rarely looked in any danger as Hamburg's three-game winning streak at home was brought to an abrupt end.

Stuttgart took a step in the right direction at the weekend when they recovered from a 4-0 defeat to Schalke by taking a point off Mainz and they took further steps towards victory in Hamburg by laying siege to Jaroslav Drobny's goal.

Martin Harnik had several chances to give the Swabians the lead with Alexandru Maxim also going close with his trickery.

Defender Niedermeier went closer still with a header from Maxim's corner which Lewis Holtby scrambled off the line the first time his goalkeeper Jaroslav Drobny was beaten.

Drobny was then beaten once again by Klein after Rafael Van der Vaart's poor pass allowed the Austrian to exchange passes with Maxim before putting the Swabians in front.

Stuttgart were good value for their lead, but their hopes of holding onto the points were dealt a blow when a professional foul by Niedermeier on Artjoms Rudnevs earned him a red card early in the second half.

Van der Vaart almost made up for his mistake on the goal by planting the resulting free-kick against the crossbar, but that was the closest Hamburg came to levelling.

Stuttgart did not have to break too much of a sweat defending their lead and three precious away points, only Stevens' second win since taking charge.