Lars Stindl's strike twenty minutes from time cancelled out Christian Gentner's opener shortly after half time.
Hannover started the brighter of the two sides; Edgar Prib’s effort was catching practice for Ulreich. Leon Andreasen’s shot from outside the box but his effort just missing the post. He had another chance two minutes later but again he failed to test Sven Ulreich and his effort flew over the bar. Liverpool target Lars Stindl met Hiroki Sakai’s delivery but he could only drag his shot wide.
Stuttgart then piled the pressure on the hosts, Timo Werner’s couldn’t quite divert his header goalwards from Christian Gentner’s cross. Maxim then set up Christian Gentner but his shot was brilliantly blocked at the edge of the box. Gotoku Sakai’s drilled effort had Zieler scrambling but it whistled past the post
The first half was fiercely contested by the two sides, Hannover trying to break into the top eight and push for European places and Stuttgart trying get off the foot of the table.
Joselu had Hannover’s best chance of the first half when Ulreich was forced into a save pushing his effort away from danger, as both teams went in at the break level.
The visitors broke the deadlock seven minutes after the break, Christian Gentner’s left footed strike sending Stevens’ side into the unlikeliest of leads.
Hannover pushed for an equaliser, Prib’s couldn’t quite get enough bend on his curling effort, which drifted, wide of the mark. Joselu’s definite scoring opportunity was then blocked just past the hour mark.
Then the Struggling Stuttgart pushed for the all-important second goal, Daniel Ginczek’s header just missing the far corner, Stevens’ men pushing closer to a vital win. Werner couldn’t quite keep his effort down to test Zieler.
With twenty minutes remaining, Ulreich pulled off a magnificent double save, firstly from Albornoz out of the top corner before Christian Schulz’s header was kept out once again by the 26 year old. Moments later, the hosts were finally level. Joselu’s header to Stindl who then found the bottom corner superbly to bring the scores level again. With just six minutes remaining, Bittencourt’s curling effort just whiskers away from making it 2-1.
The two teams finished the match with ten men however as goal scorer Lars Stindl and Martin Harnik were both sent off for fighting in the 90th minute.