Borussia Mönchengladbach avoided becoming the first team to start a Bundesliga season with seven defeats as they beat Champions League participants Stuttgart away from home in a five-goal thriller.
Sebastian Hoeneß started Dženan Pejčinović and Ermedin Demirović together for the first time since the defeat in Hoffenheim, and that decision bore fruit inside the first five minutes. The Germany U21 international provided the assist for the quickfire volley by the makeshift captain.
Moritz Nicolas should've done much better in Gladbach's goal as he had the chance to parry the ball. With Deniz Undav starting on the bench, the combination of the two strikers created another decent scoring opportunity ten minutes later.
However, the visitors started to dominate proceedings from the half-hour mark. Shuto Machino and Fabio Chiarodia failed to test Dennis Seimen from promising positions before Joe Scally stunned Stuttgart with his second goal from as many away games.
On his home debut, the young goalkeeper was unable to react fast as the US defender guided Zento Uno's effort into the net with a clever backheel. Gladbach lost all of their six league games since the start of the season, but they should've taken a lead before the half-time break.
Seimen denied Florian Neuhaus before the the woodwork came to the rescue of the hosts from Wael Mohya's attempt in the last couple of actions in injury-time. The trend continued after the break as Mohya wrestled Leo Sauer and Lorenz Assignon before finding the unmarked Machino, who put Gladbach ahead for the first time with a powerful hit.
Hoeneß wastes no time in making triple changes as Undav, Bilal El Khannouss and Jamie Leweling. The hosts tried to respond quickly, but the cellar-dwellers doubled their advantage after yet another scramble around Stuttgart's box.
The magnificent Mahoya scored for the second week running with a close range header from Scally's pinpoint delivery. Seimen was at fault as he was unable to deal with Mahoya's weak effort that led to a second chance for the 17-year-old midfielder.
Stuttgart continued to push to get back in the game, but they were unable to beat Nicolas until Demirović's header halved the deficit in the 83rd minute. The Bosnian striker’s second strike of the night was the 22nd goal Gladbach conceded this season.
After his mistake that led to the opening goal of the game, Nicolas had a strong second-half performance, including his 90th minute save to deny El Khannouss. Alexander Blessin celebrated the huge win with his players after they defended weathered several crosses into the box in injury-time.
Gladbach will host Karlsruhe in the midweek cup action, while Stuttgart travel to Paderborn for the second time this month.