After a brace of 2-1 wins to follow a five-game winless drought, Hoffenheim had the confidence needed to fly out of the traps and take an eighth-minute lead in Kraichgau.
Superb work from Fisnik Asllani proved vital, with the Kosovan squaring the ball to Andrej Kramaric, who finished with his usual coolness into the bottom-left corner.
However, Stuttgart hit back on 20’, when a quick counter enabled marauding defender Ramon Hendriks to overlap with Chris Fuhrich, who lofted the ball into the net to silence the PreZero Arena.
That ‘silence’ lasted all of three minutes, though, as Bazoumana Toure restored Hoffenheim’s lead when he latched onto a rebound and fired into the bottom-right corner from the edge of the box.
From there, the remainder of the half had some brief sparks, but no further additions to the scoresheet. In turn, Hoffenheim went in with the half-time lead in a 14th league game this term – a good omen, considering that they had gone on to win 12 of the previous 13 occasions.
Hoffenheim drastically strengthened their claims for another win just two minutes after the restart, with Kramaric sealing his 23rd Bundesliga brace – and his second in three matchdays – by converting Touré’s squared ball at the far post, following the Ivorian’s excellent control at the end of a long ball downfield.
With a header saved and a shot that hit the woodwork, respectively, Asllani and Tim Lemperle could well have made it 4-1, although those chances came either side of a Fuhrich shot that went narrowly over.
With only the top two scoring in both halves of more Bundesliga games than Stuttgart prior to the round, it should not have been a surprise to see Fuhrich himself play a role in punishing those misses.
His key switch to the right flank allowed Jamie Leweling to charge forward and cross low for Ermedin Demirovic to fire in at the far post, reviving Stuttgart’s hopes of ending the day in fourth place.
However, those hopes took another hit when Stuttgart captain Atakan Karazor cynically kicked the Achilles of a charging Asllani as he gave chase, and Sascha Stegemann did not hesitate in dismissing the Turk.
Hoffenheim failed to take advantage though, and paid dearly with the final kick of the match. Moments after heading off target despite an open goal, Tiago Tomas hit home on the rebound after Angelo Stiller’s attempted shot was blocked to rescue a point.
With both teams now just three points ahead of Bayer Leverkusen, all eyes turn to the BayArena, with the mutual hope that RB Leipzig can avoid defeat.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Bazoumana Toure (Hoffenheim)