Stuttgart beats Freiburg

Ciprian Marica's goal late in the first half was enough for Stuttgart to collect a 1-0 victory at Freiburg and continue its strong run in the Bundesliga

But Christian Gross' side were made to sweat as their hosts had a goal controversially disallowed in the second half.

An offside Heiko Butscher got the final touch to Papiss Cisse's goalbound shot, though the goal was only disallowed after protests from Stuttgart.

The visitors dominated the early stages and Simon Pouplin had to turn Pavel Pogrebnyak's drive from a free-kick over the bar before the Russian wasted a glorious chance.

Alexander Hleb's intelligent pull-back found Sami Khedira, his shot from the edge of the was box was parried by Pouplin and, off-balance, Pogrebnyak blazed horribly over from 10 yards.

A swift Freiburg break ended with left-winger Felix Bastians cutting inside and curling wide from 18 yards before Daniel Caligiuri went close from the other flank.

But Marica gave Stuttgart a deserved lead five minutes before the interval after Hleb neatly picked out Pogrebnyak. The Russian was tackled by Daniel Williams, but the ball fell for Marica to slot home.

Freiburg's Omer Toprak made a superb goal-line clearance from Roberto Hilbert's shot shortly after the interval before the home side were denied their equaliser.

Cisse's shot found the net but the goal was - eventually - chalked off due to the deflection off centre-back Butscher, surprisingly popping up in an offside position.

Freiburg again threatened as Williams' cross picked out Bastians, whose header was booted off the line by Georg Niedermeier.

Pouplin dived to deny Khedira and turned Marica's drive over after Timo Gebhart's brilliant flick.

Marica was harshly denied a late second when he was penalised for high feet in turning a Gebhart corner past Pouplin.

The Champions League side collected its third straight win and extended its unbeaten streak to five games.

Christian Gross' team improved to 22 points from 19 rounds, moving to 11th place in the league.

"I think we're out of the crisis. The success brings self-confidence. And things are going well now,'' Stuttgart midfielder Alexander Hleb said.

Goalkeeper Sven Ulreich played his third game as the replacement for the suspended Jens Lehmann.

"We dominated the first half before Freiburg came back a bit in the second half. But we could have added a goal if we would have finished our counterattacks,'' Ulreich said. "Still, most important is that we won.''

Freiburg was unable to clear some space from the relegation zone with its third loss in a row for 18 points and 15th in the standings.

Robin Dutt's team has not scored in its last four games.