Leverkusen dominate but stumble to goalless draw at home against Stuttgart

LEVERKUSEN, Germany : Champions Bayer Leverkusen twice hit the woodwork and missed a bagful of chances but could not score in a goalless draw against visitors VfB Stuttgart in the Bundesliga on Friday.

Leverkusen, who travel to Liverpool for the Champions League on Tuesday, have now won just one of their last five league games, and are in third place on 16 points. Bayern Munich, top on 20, host Union Berlin on Saturday.

In a one-sided first half the hosts missed more than half a dozen golden scoring chances and hit the crossbar with Edmond Tapsoba's header.

Leverkusen striker Victor Boniface then rattled the post with a powerful shot eight minutes after the restart as they picked up where they had left off.

Stuttgart keeper Alexander Nuebel, who had been busy in the first half, then stopped a Boniface shot in the 73rd before denying also Florian Wirtz to rescue a point for his team ahead of their own Champions league game against Atalanta on Wednesday.