Stuttgart remain in the bottom two of the Bundesliga table after falling to a fifth consecutive league defeat against Schalke 04, a 1-0 loss at the Mercedes-Benz Arena.
The hosts were first to register a chance when, eight minutes in, Timo Werner latched on to a cross from the wing, but his strike from the six-yard box flew inches wide of the left post.
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Just after the quarter-hour mark the teenage striker came close again, producing a shot from the edge of the box after a brilliant solo run, but Ralf Fahrmann acrobatically kept the goalbound ball out.
Timo Baumgartl was next to threaten when he smashed a bullet header just wide of the left post moments later, but the visitors countered through Joel Matip, whose effort was thwarted by Przemyslaw Tyton.
By the half-time whistle there had been numerous other chances, from the likes of Daniel Ginczek, Alexandru Maxim, Christian Gentner and Leroy Sane, but neither side managed to break the deadlock.
This changed just a few minutes after the restart, when Sane capped off a skilful individual drive into the box with a clinical strike from inside the box to put Schalke in the lead.
Stuttgart set about trying to remedy the situation and threatened through Ginczek and Werner, in addition to Martin Harnik firing just over the crossbar seven minutes from time.
Despite all of the hosts' increasingly desperate forays into the opposition final third, Fahrmann and his back line weathered the storm and clinched a hard-fought three points come the final whistle to climb to fourth in the table, while the 2007 champions sit second from bottom.
Giuseppe Labellarte
