Demirovic at the double as Stuttgart see off Leverkusen

Bayer Leverkusen dropped points at the BayArena for the first time this season in the Bundesliga on Saturday, losing 2-4 to VfB Stuttgart, who claimed three much-needed points.

The visitors took the lead in the 14th minute, with Ermedin Demirovic firing home the rebound after Mark Flekken had rushed off his line to push the ball away from Bilal El Khannouss.

Stuttgart doubled their lead just eight minutes later, as Jamie Leweling pounced on another rebound following a corner.

Leverkusen responded in the 28th minute, however, with Patrik Schick heading home from a corner after Dennis Seimen failed to keep out his effort.

Both sides came close to adding to the scoreline before half-time, but the crossbar denied Leverkusen's Ibrahim Maza before keeping out Leweling's attempt to grab his second goal of the afternoon.

Early in the second half, Stuttgart restored their two-goal lead when El Khannouss unleashed an unstoppable low shot from the edge of the area to put the visitors 3-1 up.

Diego Moreira, one of Leverkusen's livelier players in the second half, tried to bring his team back into the game with a fierce shot in the 56th minute, but Seimen denied him with a good save.

Instead, Stuttgart went 4-1 up in the 65th minute, as Deniz Undav sent in an inch-perfect pass behind the Leverkusen defence to pick out Ermedin Demirovic, who scored his second goal of the game.

Leverkusen refused to give up, though, and Ibrahim Maza gave them a glimmer of hope when he headed in Gutierrez's cross in the 79th minute to make it 2-4.

But it wasn't enough for Leverkusen, who suffered their third consecutive defeat against Stuttgart. Sebastian Hoeneß's men will be pleased with the win, which sees them take a big step away from the relegation zone after a disappointing start to the season.