Bayer 04 Leverkusen
| 1-0 | Kießling | (11. Min) |
| 2-1 | Rolfes | (47. Min) |
VfB Stuttgart
| 1-1 | Schieber | (24. Min) |
| 2-2 | Harnik | (89. Min) |
Khalid Boulahrouz
Michal Kadlec
Cristian Molinaro
Stats 
VfB fight rewarded with point
The 3,000 VfB fans who made their way to Leverkusen for Saturday’s clash with Bayer 04 were treated to four goals, a penalty and two red cards. In the end, the points were shared in an evenly matched 2-2 draw.
Considering recent performances, Bruno Labbadia saw fit to make five changes compared to the eleven that started last weekend, with Julian Schieber, Shinji Okazaki, Georg Niedermeier, Khalid Boulahrouz and Christian Gentner coming into the first team to replace Tamas Hajnal, Martin Harnik, Maza, Antonio Rüdiger and Zdravko Kuzmanovic respectively.
Following a minute’s silence in respect of those who lost their lives in Egypt during the week, the game got going at high tempo. VfB began well but soon the home side took control and were in the lead not soon after. From a Simon Rolfes effort, Sven Ulreich could only parry the ball forwards and Stefan Kießling was quicker to the loose ball than Serdar Tasci to force his effort home and make it 1-0 for the ‘Factory Eleven’. VfB were quick to recover from the set-back and in the 24th minute, a free-kick was laid-off to Julian Schieber, who drove the ball home powerfully to make it 1-1 going into the break.
Diashow
VfB shake off further set-back
Just seconds into the second period, Tasci collided with Lars Bender in the penalty area and referee Thorsten Kinhöfer had no hesitation in awarding the home side a penalty, which Rolfes converted to put Bayer back in the lead again. VfB’s chances of making another comeback were then improved in the 63rd minute, when Michal Kadlec was sent off for a second bookable offence. Initially Bruno Labbadia’s men could make little use of their numerical advantage but in the closing phase of the game, that was all to change. Bayer packed their defence in an attempt to hold onto their narrow lead over the distance and frustrated VfB until the final minute, when, following a scramble in the goal area, the ball landed at the feet of substitute Martin Harnik, whose effort bobbled across the line to make it 2-2.
VfB goal-scorer Martin Harnik: "My performances in the past couple of games were not so good, so it was logical that I would start on the bench today."
Post match comments
In injury time, Molinaro caught Schürrle in an attempt to get to the ball and the referee determined the challenge to be worthy of red and sent the Italian for a, slightly, early shower. It was a deserved 2-2 draw and, after four consecutive defeats, VfB finally took their first point of 2012.