Barcelona step towards knock-out phase

Barcelona took a step closer to the Champions League's first knock-out round on Tuesday night with a convincing 2-0 win at VfB Stuttgart to claim their second consecutive group stage win.

Despite the home side having four clear first-half chances to take the lead, Stuttgart's defence finally cracked as substitute Carles Puyol and Argentinian super-star Lionel Messi fired second-half goals.

The win leaves the Spaniards unbeaten in Group E after last month's 3-0 win at home to Lyon as they join Rangers on six points, while Stuttgart stay pointless.

"We met an opponent who are in great form at the moment and, unfortunately, we were not equipped with the appropriate self-confidence to deal with that," said Stuttgart coach Armin Veh.

"Without the confidence, we needed a fair bit of luck and, again unfortunately, we haven't got that at the moment either.

"You only needed to look at the goals they scored to see where we went wrong."

But despite his side's comfortable win, Barcelona's Dutch coach Frank Rijkaard was far from satisfied with the performance. "I was not impressed with the first-half," he said.

"We started well, but we were thoughtless with our chances. Those are problems which we must address, because you can't afford to waste them in a competition like this."

With Rangers also unbeaten after Tuesday night's 3-0 win in Lyon, Stuttgart now have a mountain to climb to make the competition's next stage after last month's opening 2-1 defeat in Glasgow.

Although the Germans came into the game on the back of a shock 2-1 away defeat to Bundesliga minnows Hansa Rostock at the weekend, the atmosphere at the Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion was electric as the home fans got behind their side.

But the classy Spaniards showed why they are highly-fancied to win Europe's top football competition and regain then title they won in 2006.

Of Barcelona's 'Cuatro Fantasticos' only Cameroon's Samual Eto'o was missing with injury as Ronaldinho, Lionel Messi and Thierry Henry made up a world-class forward line.

With his side going top of La Liga at the weekend with a 4-1 win at Levante, Barcelona coach Frank Rijkaard named Brazilian Ronaldinho as captain despite missing the last three games with a calf strain.

Barcelona gave Stuttgart an early warning of the danger when Ronaldinho combined with Messi who clattered his shot against the post after only five minutes.

Germany's footballer of the year Mario Gomez fired back for Stuttgart moments later, but his effort troubled the side netting more than Barcelona's 'keeper Victor Valdez.

Valdez then kept his side in the game with four top-class saves as he denied Gomez from two headers at point-blank range on 32 minutes and blocked two shots from wing Arthur Boka just before half-time.

But Stuttgart's bitter pill came in the 53rd minute when Puyol, who was an early replacement for defender Rafael Marquez, stabbed his shot home after Ronaldinho had broken the defence.

And Messi, who picked up a yellow card late in the first half, grabbed the second when his shot passed under Stuttgart's 'keeper Raphael Schaefer and trickled over the line on 67 minutes.

It could so easily have finished 3-0 as Eric Abidal pushed his shot wide in injury tine despite a posse of Barcelona attackers screaming for the ball with the home defence nowhere to be seen.