Three wins and 10 goals scored in their last three UEL matches had propelled Stuttgart up the table, and their bid for another victory began brightly as space opened up for Maximilian Mittelstadt to shoot two minutes in, but he failed to trouble Mile Svilar.
Roma – beginning the night with an almost identical record to their visitors – saw their first two real chances fall to Matias Soule just before the 20-minute mark, as he took on a shot from just outside the area, and then a volley on the next attack, but both flew over Alexander Nubel’s crossbar.
After 32 minutes without an effort on target, Stuttgart produced three in two minutes. Chris Fuhrich probably wasn’t intending to go for goal with a free-kick from distance that Svilar had to gather, but Jamie Leweling certainly was as he took aim from the edge of the area, forcing the home goalkeeper into a good reaction stop, before he safely caught another Fuhrich strike from range.
But just when Die Roten looked to be taking control, Niccolo Pisilli latched onto an expert Soulr through ball to get in behind and power the ball into the top corner to give Roma the lead five minutes before half-time.
Stuttgart were fortunate not to be two down at the break, after Nubel denied Lorenzo Pellegrini with a superb save, and then should have drawn level soon after the restart when Deniz Undav outmuscled the defence to bear down on goal, but Svilar did well to smother his strike.
Just before the hour mark, Undav couldn’t use good goalkeeping as an excuse for not equalising, when a deflected Mittelstadt free-kick fell kindly for him, but with only Svilar to beat, the striker blazed the ball over the bar.
Lorenz Assignon caught a half-volley sweetly, but again Svilar was unbeatable as Sebastian Hoeness' side kept pressing with a quarter of the match remaining.
The Giallorossi defensive resilience looked to have finally been beaten 11 minutes from time when a Chema Andres flick-on provided a golden chance for Ermedin Demirovic at point-blank range, but Svilar somehow got behind it, before Evan Ndicka scrambled it clear.
Roma didn’t manage a second-half effort on goal after half-time until added time, when they sealed the points with a flowing move that resulted in Paulo Dybala teeing up Pisilli to fire in his second.
A fourth UEL win in a row for the first time since 2020/21 puts Gian Piero Gasperini’s side one point clear of ninth place ahead of their trip to Panathinaikos next week. Meanwhile, a first defeat in seven in all competitions leaves Stuttgart needing to beat Young Boys at home and hope other results go their way.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Mile Svilar (AS Roma)
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