Trailing by two goals against a resurgent Borussia Mönchengladbach side, VfB Stuttgart hit back through Wataru Endo and Chris Führich before Sasa Kalajdzic struck seven minutes from time to raise Die Schwaben's hopes of Bundesliga survival.

Stuttgart 3-2 Gladbach
Goals: 0-1 Plea 14' (assist: Neuhaus), 0-2 Thuram 35' (assist: Plea), 1-2 Endo (38'), 2-2 Führich 51' (assist: Kalajdzic), 3-2  Kalajdzic 83' (assist: Sosa)

Prior to kick-off, Stuttgart coach Pellegrino Matarazzo insisted his side just " needed that first success," in order to reverse their fortunes and begin climbing out of the Bundesliga drop zone. Inspired by those words, the home team set about attempting to gain their first win since Matchday 15. Fürhrich's early tester was fielded by Yann Sommer before the visiting 'keeper would pull off a more eye-catching, two-handed save from Tiago Tomas's firm drive to frustrate the hosts once more. Gladbach arrested their own recent run of poor results with a mini-revival that brought just one loss in four. Against the run of play here, Adi Hütter's men created a solid base on which to build when Alassane Plea brilliantly combined with Florian Neuhaus before volleying in the game's opening goal. Involved in five of his team's previous seven goals to that point, Plea added to that impressive stat with a cross that was met by Marcus Thuram's sliding finish to put daylight between the teams. Stuttgart - enduring the longest winless run of any Bundesliga team - needed hope before the break. The lifeline was delivered after Ramy Bensebaini's rushed clearance was fired in by Endo.

When it came to coming back from two goals down, the Swabians had history last season. Back in December 2020, Stuttgart earned a point having trailed by a 2-0 deficit against Union Berlin. After just six minutes of the restart here, memories of that day were sparked when Führich connected with a diving header that followed a goal-mouth scramble to level things up. The 100th top-flight meeting between these teams now a pulsating, end-to-end affair, both sides went in search of the lead. Neuhaus brought a fine stop out of Florian Müller with a powerful shot while Sommer was soon producing more heroics for Gladbach when denying Tomas from close range. Their vociferous supporters bouncing inside a pulsating Mercedes-Benz Arena, Stuttgart sensed a first triumph since beating Wolfsburg on 11 December last year. When Borna Sosa cut a pass back for Kalajdzic to fire past Sommer, the comeback was complete and Stuttgart's dreams of survival were significantly enhanced.

Match stats

• Kalajdzic has scored two of his last three Bundesliga goals against Gladbach.
• Plea has been involved in six goals in his last five Bundesliga games; only Marco Reus has had a hand in more goals (7) during this period.
• Endo scored in consecutive Bundesliga games for the first time.
• The Japan international has three goals this season, the same amount as he managed in the entire 2020/21 campaign.
• Thuram, meanwhile, netted in successive games for the first time in almost two years.
• Führich scored his first home goal for Stuttgart.
• Stuttgart's equaliser for 2-2 brought Gladbach's goals against tally up to 50 for the campaign.

Watch: Sommer: "We're not good enough in defence at the moment"

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Line-ups

Stuttgart: Müller - Mavropanos, Anton, Ito - Führich (Förster 90'), Endo (c), Karazor, Sosa - Marmoush (Coulibaly 89') - Tiago (Egloff 90'+4), Kalajdzic
Unused subs: Bredlow, Mola, Thommy, Mangala, Massimo, Ahamada
Out: Nartey (knee), Sankoh (knee), Silas (shoulder), Stenzel (calf)
Coach: Pellegrino Matarazzo

Gladbach: Sommer (c) - Scally, Ginter, Elvedi, Bensebaini - Kramer, Kone (Embolo 72') - Hofmann, Neuhaus, Thuram - Plea (Netz 84')
Unused subs: Sippel, Herrmann, Benes, Noß, Bennetts, Gaal
Out: Beyer (suspended), Doucoure (muscular), Jantschke (knee), Friedrich (flu), Lainer (unconfirmed), Stindl (knee)
Coach: Adi Hütter

About the clubs

VfB Stuttgart

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Borussia Mönchengladbach

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