Werden Bremen deny Bayer Leverkusen in six-goal Bundesliga thriller

Dennis Grombkowski/Bongarts/Getty Images

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Bayer Leverkusen and Werder Bremen shared six goals in an extraordinary encounter at the BayArena on Friday night that finished 3-3.

Tin Jedvaj gave the hosts an overdue lead in the 18th minute of a game which Leverkusen could have led by three or four before Fin Bartels levelled on the stroke of half-time.

Franco Di Santo gave Bremen a shock lead after an hour, but Hakan Calhonoglu and Son Heung-min ironed things out for what seemed like it would be Leverkusen's third straight win.

However, there was to be one final twist in the tale with Sebastian Prodl netting a late equaliser, earning Bremen a third successive draw and stunning Leverkusen, who travel to Monaco in the Champions League on Wednesday having dropped their first points of the season.

The tone for the game was set when Leverkusen midfielder Gonzalo Castro ripped his shot from 25 yards against the inside of the left-hand post.

It was the first of four times that the Bremen woodwork took a pounding, the second of which nevertheless did not prevent the ball from ending up in the back of the net.

It was Jedvaj who scored his second goal for the club following his summer move from Roma with a shot from just inside the penalty area, the ball hitting the underside of the crossbar on its way in.

Emir Spahic was the next to hit the same post as Castro from Stefan Kiessling's nod down before Levin Oztunali rattled the crossbar.

Throughout this siege, Raphael Wolf also made numerous saves, most notably from Calhanoglu, after which the Bremen goalkeeper reprimanded his defence.

Then, completely against the run of play, Bremen took their one and only chance of the half to level, Bartels left in acres of room on the right to thread his shot inside Bernd Leno's post.

The surprise turned to shock on the hour mark when Bremen, still under almost constant pressure, took the lead.

Zlatko Junuzovic's cross was met by Di Santo, who slotted his shot through Leno's legs to silence the BayArena completely.

Bayer could no longer be so wasteful with their chances and Calhanoglu showed them exactly how it had to be done by curling one of his trademark free-kicks over the wall and in from nearly 30 yards out.

Bremen had two further excellent chances on the break, wasted by Eljero Elia and Bartels, before Leverkusen took the lead again when Son turned Assani Lukimya before finding the bottom corner.

That was still not enough to clinch the points, though, with Bremen not laying down, and they equalised again five minutes from time when Leverkusen's defence was again caught out.

Nils Petersen nodded a right-wing cross to the far post where defender Prodl was waiting to send a left-foot volley into the roof of the net from point-blank range.