Despite Stuttgart beginning on the front foot, it was Fenerbahçe’s counter-attacking threat that carved out the first openings of the night. Dorgeles Nene raced clear early on, only to see his effort safely gathered by Alexander Nübel, before Youssef En-Nesyri forced another strong save from the visiting goalkeeper.

The visitors soon began to find their rhythm, and Luca Jaquez came close to breaking the deadlock, glancing a header narrowly wide of Ederson’s right-hand post.

As tension rose inside the ever-raucous Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium, the match descended into chaos — and the turning point arrived when Angelo Stiller brought down Milan Škriniar inside the area.

Kerem Aktürkoğlu confidently converted the resulting penalty, notching his fourth European goal of the season, including one scored for former club Benfica, whose elimination from Champions League qualifying ironically paved the way for his current side’s Europa League campaign.

Stuttgart struggled to find a foothold before the break and were let off the hook soon after when a second Fenerbahçe penalty was overturned due to an offside in the build-up. Moments later, the visitors had a penalty appeal of their own waved away when Stiller went down under Edson Álvarez’s challenge.

The hosts regained control as the game wore on, pushing to double their lead through a series of half-chances. At the other end, Deniz Undav wasted Stuttgart’s best opportunity of the half, dragging his shot wide after being picked out by Bilal El Khannouss on the counter.

Ultimately, Sarı Kanaryalar held firm to secure victory, extending their unbeaten home run to 11 matches and continuing their Europa League resurgence following their opening-day defeat to Dinamo Zagreb.

For Sebastian Hoeneß and Stuttgart, this marked a second straight away loss in the competition — a disappointing setback that contrasts sharply with their four-match winning streak in the Bundesliga heading into the weekend.