The Bundesliga opener saw the spoils shared as Stuttgart and Schalke fought out an entertaining 2-2 draw.
Stuttgart, even though not really piling on the pressure, started the brighter of the 2 sides in an attacking sense. The Swabians forced 3 corners in the 1st 8 minutes as they had taken the game to Schalke.
Kevin Kuranyi earned the unwanted distinction of becoming the 1st player booked this season after bringing down Serdar Tasci from behind. Shortly afterwards Cacau had the 1st goalscoring chance, before Özil fired Schalke's 1st chance wide.
On 20 minutes, Manuel Neuer was faced with the 1st 'Hammer Hitzlsperger' free-kick, and did well to hold on to the deflected shot.
5 minutes later another deflection gave the Königsblauen the lead.
Mesut Özil laid the ball off to Kobiashvili whose shot from the edge of the penalty area looked set to be covered by Raphael Schäfer in the Stuttgart goal. However the outstretched left leg of stand in right back Roberto Hilbert deflected the ball wickedly into the goal leaving Schäfer powerless.
The goal was Schalke's 1st goal in the Gottlieb-Daimler Stadion since 2002.
With Stuttgart looking for the equaliser, a long ball from Pavel Pardo saw new signing Ciprian Marica clean through on goal, only for Manuel Neuer to come racing out of his area to clear.
The reigning champions best chance of the 1st half then fell to Marica, however the €7 million new boy from Shakhtar Donetsk headed a Boka cross only wide.
The 2nd half got underway with Jermaine Jones replacing Özil. The 1st chance of the 2nd period saw Christian Pander curl a wicked free kick inches wide.
A spate of niggly fouls saw Artur Boka and Jermaine Jones booked by referee Fandel. Schalke should have gone 2-0 ahead on 57 minutes after Fabian Ernst was denied by a point blank safe from Schäfer following a good cross from Lövenkrands. The save showed that Stuttgart have found a more than adequate replacement for the departed Timo Hildebrand.
On 63 minutes Stuttgart got themselves back in the game with a Sami Khedira equaliser. A precision through ball from Hilbert was controlled by the youngster before shooting past Neuer in the Schalke goal.
3 minutes later and the Swabians were in front. Cacau saw his shnot well saved by Neuer, however the young keeper them brought down Marica as the Rumanian followed up. Mexican international Pavel Pardo made no mistake from the spot placing the ball high to the keeper's right.
Stuttgart now had the bit between their teeth and continued to press forward. Ivan Rakitic was sent on after 70 minutes as Mirko Slomka looked to get the equaliser.
The 19 year old instantly justified Slomka's decision with Schalke's 2nd goal. A good individual effort saw the Croatian beat Fernando Meira with good close control before clinically slotting past Schäfer.
The last fifteen minutes saw Stuttgart have a goal rightly disallowed for offside. The 2-2 draw in the end was a fair result in what was a good, pacy season opener.
