Stuttgart's Ciprian Marica scored the only goal of the game sealing a narrow win against Spain's Getafe. The win pushes aside the Germans' domestic worries for now and maintains their perfect start in Group H of the UEFA Europa League.

Bottom of the Bundesliga and without a permanent coach having sacked Christian Gross last week, Stuttgart's continental form has bucked a trend with three successive victories seeing them top the group in style. Interim coach Jens Keller watched his side get over a difficult start in which former Chelsea defender Khalid Boulahrouz got in a timely interception in the box as the Spanish side started brightly.

But as the first period wore on Stuttgart assumed control with Mauro Camoranesi forcing a fine save out of Oscar Ustari, then Marica forcing home the 29th-minute opener at the second attempt after Ustari's initial save. Stuttgart came close to building on their advantage almost immediately when Zdravko Kuzmanovic had a shot tipped round the post by Ustari, then Camoranesi headed just over the bar from close range.

The busy Ustari finger-tipped away another Kuzmanovic effort on the stroke of half-time and Stuttgart continued to dominate after the break when Cacau should have done better than shoot straight at the keeper. Second-half substitute Pogrebnyak came close on a couple of occasions as Stuttgart continued to press. For all Stuttgart's possession they failed to find the second goal and they were almost made to pay late on when keeper Sven Ulreich - a virtual spectator for most of the game - pulled off an excellent save to deny Manu del Moral.

Keller is now strongly fancied to land the Stuttgart job full-time following his Europa League success but he knows his next task will be to improve on a dismal Bundesliga start that has yielded just four points from eight games to date.