Jens Stage rescues vital point for Werder Bremen in German relegation battle

[p]A slow start from the hosts was perhaps to be expected after they were taken all the way to ET on Thursday as they booked their place in a second successive DFB-Pokal final.[/p][p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/werder-bremen/Ig1f1fy3/"]Bremen[/a] threatened to upset the odds and break the deadlock early, but Senne Lynen – who has never scored in 92 Bundesliga appearances – failed with two efforts before [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/stage-jens/jJ1sdqU7/"]Jens Stage[/a] looped a header wide of the far post.[/p][p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/vfb-stuttgart/nJQmYp1B/"]Stuttgart[/a] failed to heed those warnings, and on 18 minutes, they could have few complaints at falling behind to the in-form Stage, who swept home a gorgeous first-time low finish from [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/sugawara-yukinari/f7AvlM2c/"]Yukinari Sugawara[/a]’s cutback.[/p][p]Bremen goalkeeper Mio Backhaus was busy in response, keeping out a powerful [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/el-khannous-bilal/Ui6gj3Cl/"]Bilal El Khannouss[/a] header before gathering Maximilian Mittelstädt’s deflected free-kick. His most impressive work came in stoppage time to deny a curling Deniz Undav effort, moments after Jovan Milošević squandered a big chance to double Bremen’s advantage when he curled wide after flooring Dan-Axel Zagadou.[/p][image alt="VfB Stuggart - Werder Bremen - Player Ratings" id="7c99e249-e529-400a-ba07-9f1e96c8067e" credit-line="Flashare" guid="fba01a3f-fd61-4181-a2f0-cfd5325311df" original-width="1200" original-height="1200" /][p]Die Schwaben showed few signs of improvement in the second half’s early stages, prompting Sebastian Hoeneß to introduce Chris Führich and [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/demirovic-ermedin/dIsZ5Eyb/"]Ermedin Demirović[/a] from the bench.[/p][p]That proved a masterstroke, as within four minutes of his introduction, Demirović headed in El Khannouss’ delivery to restore parity. Die Werderaner’s attacking threat had largely disappeared since the restart, yet a huge chance to move back ahead passed them by when Stage could only tamely shoot straight at Alexander Nübel after being left unmarked inside the six-yard box.[/p][p]At the other end, Backhaus parried Angelo Stiller’s free-kick away from danger as [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/game/soccer/stuttgart-nJQmYp1B/werder-bremen-Ig1f1fy3/?mid=UPVXbAA4"]Bremen held on for a draw[/a] that sees them leapfrog three of their relegation rivals in the Bundesliga and lifts them six points clear of the bottom three.[/p][p]This represents their first point of the campaign against the current top five, while Stuttgart have now failed to win three of their last four league outings.[/p][h2][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/el-khannous-bilal/Ui6gj3Cl/"]Flashscore Man of the Match: Bilal El Khannouss (VfB Stuttgart)[/a][/h2]