Woltemade's departure, however, doesn't seem to have impacted Stuttgart all that heavily. Approximately a third of the way into the Bundesliga season, Stuttgart are firmly in contention for a top-four spot and a place in next season's Champions League. Despite not managing to leave their away match against Borussia Dortmund with a win, their 3-3 draw nevertheless made a dent in their opponent's own push for a Champions League spot.
At half-time, though, it seemed unlikely that Stuttgart would avoid defeat given that Dortmund brought a 2-0 lead into the break. Emre Can converted a penalty before Maximilian Beier added Dortmund's second just seven minutes later to put the Schwarzgelbe in a commanding position going into the interval. The scoreline was generally reflective of Dortmund's level of control over the match throughout the first half.
None of this would last as the second half would turn out to be completely different. Denis Undav, who surrendered the penalty which led to Dortmund's opening goal, would go on to atone for it and then some. To start things off, less than two minutes after the break, Undav scored with a spectacular finish with the back of his foot and facing away from goal. Undav would then score his and his team's second in the 71st minute after Maximilian Mittelstädt's header landed in just the right spot for Undav to volley it in.
On multiple occasions this season, Dortmund have surrendered cheap points from an advantageous position. It seemed as though this would once again be the case - at least until substitute Karim Adeyemi put Dortmund 3-2 up in the 89th minute. Once again, though, this didn't last as Undav had the final say with a stoppage-time equalizer after having been assisted by Chris Führich.
Having lost to RB Leipzig three weeks ago, it was important for Stuttgart to once again avoid defeat against another direct rival for Champions League qualification - especially as this match comes in a particularly brutal portion of their schedule. In an ongoing eight-match span, Stuttgart had or have fixtures against Leipzig, Dortmund, Bayern Munich, Bayer Leverkusen, and Eintracht Frankfurt.
All three of Stuttgart's goals to some extent involved a build-up coming from out wide. This has been one of their main strengths throughout this season, and they once again leveraged it to claw their way back from two goals behind. It's something which Stuttgart are likely to have to depend upon often if they are to make a serious push for a return to the Champions League after finishing ninth in the league last season and missing out on this season's edition.
Also, with this result, Dortmund have now been unable to beat Stuttgart even once in their last six matches in all competitions. This is also a major point in Stuttgart's favour; the fact that they've clearly gotten into one of their direct rival's heads is a major deal. For that reason, they can feasibly be expected to finish the return fixture in April with all three points in hand - especially crucial given how late in the season it would be.
That being said, it must also be noted that Stuttgart's draw against Dortmund could easily have been a win. Both of the two first-half goals which Stuttgart conceded were avoidable. Undav's foul on Nico Schlotterbeck in the penalty area was an obvious unforced error while Beier's goal wouldn't have been made possible without some very questionable defense on Stuttgart's part. As much as Stuttgart can say that they earned a point against Dortmund, they equally lost two due to errors like those - and such errors, if committed too frequently, would ruin any chance they have of making it to next season's Champions League.
It's still far too early to say if VfB Stuttgart will finish the season in the top four, but based on what was shown in this most recent match as well as throughout the season, they'll almost certainly at least be in contention down the final stretch.
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