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Stuttgart falls as Lens grabs win

Stuttgart's Cacau from Brazil, left, and Donetsk's Darijo Srna from Croatia challenge for the ball during a UEFA Cup Group G match between VfB Stuttgart and Shakhtar Donetsk at the Gottlieb Daimler stadium in Stuttgart, Germany, on Thursday. PHOTO: AP

Stuttgart lost 2-0 to visiting Shakhtar Donetsk in the UEFA Cup on Thursday to put more pressure on coach Giovanni Trapattoni, while Daniel Cousins scored a hat trick to help Lens defeat Halmstads BK.

Shakhtar went ahead in the 31st minute at the German club, when Fernandinho was left unmarked at the far post to head in a cross. In the 88th, substitute Ciprian Marica beat an offside trap and slotted the ball home.

A former Italy coach, Trapattoni took over Stuttgart in June after a brief time at Portuguese side Benfica. The club has already been eliminated from the German Cup and is 10th in the Bundesliga, 15 points behind leader Bayern Munich.

Shakhtar leads UEFA Cup Group G with six points. Rapid Bucharest earned its first points with a 2-0 win over Rennes and tied with Stuttgart on three points. PAOK and Rennes have zero points.

Other winners in the second rotation of the group stage of Europe's second-tier club competition included Hamburg, Middlesbrough, FC Basel, Strasbourg, Seville and Bolton. Defending champion CSKA Moscow was held to 0-0 by Heerenveen.

The top three teams from each of the eight five-team groups advance to the knockout round of 32.

At Lens, Cousins scored in the 16th, 23rd and 47th minutes. Issam Jemaa added the third in the 73rd and Yaonn Lacho made it 5-0 in the 90th for the club's first win in the group stage. Steaua drew 0-0 with Sampdoria but leads Group C with four points, followed by Lens and Hertha Berlin with three, Sampdoria with one, and Halmstad with zero.

In Group A, Rafael Van der Vaart put Hamburg ahead of Viking in the 21st minute with a left-footed shot after playing a one-two with Piotr Trochowski.

Benjamin Lauth snapped a three-month scoring drought with a header in the 65th to make it 2-0. Hamburg had 24 shots on goal to Viking's three.

Slavia Prague beat CSKA Sofia 4-2 in the other group match. Hamburg leads with six points, followed by Viking and Slavia with three, and Monaco and CSKA Sofia with none.

In Group E, Basel beat Red Star Belgrade with an 88th-minute goal from Julio Rossi. Milan Purovic had given the 1991 European champion the lead, but Basel's Matias Delgado equalized with a penalty.

The match was played in an empty stadium as punishment for violent incidents that marred Red Star's qualifying match against NK Inter Zapresic.

Strasbourg beat Tromso 2-0 for its second straight win to lead Group E. Basel and Roma have three points.
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