Bundesliga: Stuttgart held to 3-3 draw at Hamburg

Stuttgart squandered the lead three times against Hamburg to share points following a 3-3 draw while Wolfsburg ensured a 2-1 comeback win against Augsburg to close the ninth round of the Bundesliga football Sunday.

Hamburg came back three times to deny the visitors three points on the road in a fast paced encounter, repors Xinhua.

Stuttgart caught a bright start against the hosts as Alexandru Maxim broke the deadlock with just three minutes on the clock. Maxim curled the ball into the far post corner from 10 metres following a one-two with Vedad Ibisevic.

Hamburg forced the pace to shock the visitors at the 22nd minute when Pierre Michel Lassogga restored parity thanks to Tolgay Arslan's square pass into the box.

It was a short-lived joy by the hosts as Stuttgart grabbed the lead for the second time, 15 minutes later. Maxim's dead ball into the box found Christian Gentner who headed home to make it 2-1 on the scoreboards.

However, the "Rothosen" remained unfazed as Maximilian Beister overcame Stuttgart's keeper Sven Ulreich following Marcell Jansen's build up play, 10 minutes into the second half.

Hamburg failed to retain the draw as Johan Djourou scored an own goal to give the visitors the 3-2 lead at the 64th minute. But, Hamburg had again an response on hand as Rafael van der Vaart's strike found the back of the net only three minutes later.

Stuttgart's Antonio Ruediger marked the negative highlight of the match when he was sent off owing to a violent conduct to van der Vaart in the dying minutes of the match.

"If you grab the lead three times you have to leave the pitch as the winner," Stuttgart's coach Thomas Schneider said.

"I wanted to win. But I'm satisfied with the way we played," Hamburg's coach Bert van Marwijk said.

Elsewhere, Augsburg squandered their fourth win of the season as Wolfsburg's Maximilian Arnold and Luiz Gustavo pulverized Tobias Werner's opener within the first half. Thus, the "Wolves" stay on ninth position as they recorded their fourth win of the season.