Berlin, Sep 13 (IANS): Werder Bremen fought back twice to ensure a 3-3 against Bayer Leverkusen to open the third round of the German Bundesliga.
After two straight victories Leverkusen Friday night recorded their first draw while Bremen sealed their third tie in as many games, reports Xinhua.
Leverkusen took the lead twice but resilient Bremen snatched a point on the road in an entertaining see-saw battle.
It took only 17 minutes before the hosts and Bundesliga front-runners, Leverkusen, broke the deadlock against a passive Bremen. Youngster Tin Jedvaj hammered the opener from outside of the box into the roof of the net.
Leverkusen dominated the match in all departments in the first half but their wastefulness, with several hits on the woodwork, allowed Bremen to level the score out of the blue just before the break.
Fin Bartels equalised the scores when he finished a fast break into the bottom left, flabbergasting the dominant hosts.
Things went from bad to worse for the hosts as Bremen's Franco di Santo turned the tides against the run of play when he nutmegged Leverkusen goalkeeper Bernd Leno from close range in the 60th minute.
Leverkusen responded three minutes later with a free-kick goal by Hakan Calhanoglu, who curled the ball over the wall into the top left corner making it two-all on the scoreboards.
However, the hosts were not done with the scoring as Heung Min Son slotted home a long-range effort with 73 minutes into the game.
Bremen kept pressurising and were rewarded with four minutes left when Sebastian Proedl poked home a flicked-on cross at the far post, snatching one point for the visitors from Bremen.