Bayer Leverkusen produced their second comeback in five days to earn a hard-fought 4-3 victory over visitors Stuttgart in the Bundesliga this afternoon.
The away side arguably started as the stronger of the two teams, and they might have found an early advantage had Daniel Didavi not been so wasteful in front of goal.
Leverkusen sought to hit back through former Manchester United striker Javier Hernandez, but he saw his headed effort fly wide of the target midway through the first half.
The hosts could have grabbed a vital lead just before the break, only for Leverkusen's accuracy to leave them once more, this time as Jonathan Tah headed wide of the Stuttgart goal.
The away side made Bayer pay early in the second period, as Martin Harnik stole in to make it 1-0 Stuttgart after 50 minutes.
Things continued to deteriorate for Leverkusen, who soon found themselves two goals down when Didavi found a way through just four minutes after the opening goal.
Bayer gave themselves a lifeline, however, as Karim Bellarabi got past Przemyslaw Tyton to reduce the deficit to just one in the 57th minute.
A whirlwind of a second half continued to become even more bizarre when the game saw a fourth goal in 10 minutes, and it came thanks to Stuttgart's Lukas Rupp, who finished smartly to restore the visitors' two-goal lead.
Leverkusen had still not given the game up, though, and they came straight back through Sebastian Boenisch, who gave the hosts a slender lifeline.
Bayer were able to launch a second remarkable comeback in recent times when Hernandez found himself with time to finish in the 71st minute in order to bring the hosts level.
The game was then flipped on its head just one minute from time thanks to Admir Mehmedi, who made no mistake with his late finish to ensure that Leverkusen clinched all three points.
Christopher Dodd
