Basel beat Stuttgart 2-0 in Europa League

VfB Stuttgart gifted Basel the opening goal and missed a penalty in a painful 2-0 Europa League defeat in Switzerland on Thursday.

Albian Ajeti in the third and Xherdan Shaqiri in the 84th gave Basel their first points and denied Stuttgart a second victory, after their Ermedin Demirovic missed from the spot in the 36th.

"It felt like everything went against us. I can't really explain why we lost," Demirovic told broadcasters RTL. Coach Sebastian Hoeness agreed that "it is a very annoying defeat" and that "we beat ourselves."

Basel were ahead when Lorenz Assignon played a terrible pass back towards his penalty area, Ajeti got the ball, shook off a stumbling defender and firmly fired home.

Koba Koindredi hit the post as Basel came close again, before Stuttgart raised their game.

Demirovic headed narrowly over, and the forward had an even bigger chance to level after Jonas Adjetey had brought down Tiago Tomas, but his tame penalty was saved by goalkeeper Marwin Hitz.

It was Stuttgart's seventh miss from 11 penalties since the start of the 2024-25 season.

Basel then had three big chances in stoppage time to make it 2-0 but Ajeti aimed wide, Leo Leroy's volley was saved by Alexander Nübel, and Shaqiri's long-range lob over the stranded Nübel went just over.

Stuttgart tried to fight back after the break, with Assignon hitting the side-netting and Hitz saved Chema Andres' header on the hour.

But it was all over with six minutes left 84th when Shaqiri chipped over Nübel from a tight left angle. Moritz Broschinski got the last touch and was originally named scorer, but UEFA eventually awarded the goal to Shaqiri.