Babbel warning to Stuttgart stars

Posted Tuesday, September 29, 2009 by PA

Stuttgart coach Markus Babbel has warned his players they will be in for a shock if they expect Tuesday's Champions League opponents Unirea Urziceni to be a push-over.

The German side travel to Bucharest looking to their first win in Group G after being held to a 1-1 draw by Rangers in their opening game.

Romanian side Unirea are on paper the weakest team in the pool but Babbel, whose side returned to winning ways in the Bundesliga with a 3-0 win at Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday, is expecting a real test.

"They are the reigning champions and are again already in front in their league," he said in Sport Bild. "That is not a flash in the pan, but a tough customer."

Stuttgart would do well to be wary as they have started the domestic season slowly. The victory over Frankfurt was only their second in seven league games, and only lifted them up to 11th place with eight points.

And failure to win their first group match at home to Scottish champions Rangers - Madjid Bougherra cancelled out Pavel Pogrebnyak's opener 13 minutes from time - has put more pressure on Tuesday's result.

"This is an incredibly important game for the team," said Babbel. "We have to carry on from the very, very good performance against Frankfurt."

Romanian striker Ciprian Marica feels the win at the weekend could kick-start Stuttgart's season.

He added: "That was very important for us. We hope that as a result we are finally out of our crisis."

Stuttgart will be without the injured Alexander Hleb.

Unirea boss Dan Petrescu has fond memories of facing Stuttgart as a player, having been in the Chelsea team which beat the German side 1-0 to win the now defunct Cup Winners' Cup in 1998.

His current side lie bottom of the group, though, having lost their opening game 2-0 away to Sevilla.

But they top their domestic league alongside CFR Cluj, who held Chelsea to a goalless draw in the Champions League last season.