Niclas Fuellkrug's second-half penalty helped Hannover secure one point against Stuttgart at the opener of the 13th round in Bundesliga.
The two newly-promoted sides shared the spoils following a 1-1 draw as Fuellkrug cancelled out Takuma Asano's first-half opener on Friday, reports Xinhua news agency.
Both teams started highly motivated into the encounter. Hence, the spectators at HDI Arena had to wait only seven minutes to see the first chance of the game as Martin Harnik tested Stuttgart goalkeeper Ron-Robert Zieler from sharp angle.
As the match progressed, Stuttgart increased their efforts and they got rewarded in the 24th minute as Hannover goalkeeper Philipp Tschauner spilled a long-range effort from Christian Gentner, allowing Takuma Asano to slot home the rebound into the open goal.
The "Swabians" gained momentum and should have doubled the lead in the 31st minute but Berkay Oezcan failed to score with just Tschauner to beat.
Hannover posed a threat during set-piece situations but Stuttgart still took the narrow lead into the break.
After the restart, Hannover piled on the pressure but the "Reds" had to wait until the 62nd minute to produce another clear-cut opportunity as Salif Sane rattled the right post.
Stuttgart tried to protect their one-goal lead to the end and kept all their men behind the ball meanwhile Hannover pressed frenetically for the equalizer.
However, the hosts eventually got rewarded in the 76th minute as Benjamin Pavard felled Matthias Ostrzolek inside the box to cause a foul-play penalty. Niclas Fuellkrug stepped up and made no mistake to level the scores.
Stuttgart had the golden chance to restore their one-goal lead immediately but Dennis Aogo was unable to slot home from promising position.
With the result, Stuttgart reaped the first away point of the season to climb on the 10th place for now meanwhile Hannover recovered from two straight defeats to stay on the eighth position.
--IANS
sam/vm
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