Stuttgart missed the chance to climb off the bottom of the Bundesliga table as Schalke 04 ended their winless run with a 3-2 victory at the Veltins Arena.

Schalke were ahead inside nine minutes as Klaas-Jan Huntelaar ended his poor run in front of goal by reacting quickest to a cross to fire home his first Bundesliga goal since November.

The hosts continued to look threatening after breaking the deadlock and only a fine stop from Sven Ulreich prevented Leroy Sane from doubling their lead a few moments later.

Stuttgart responded in impressive fashion to get back on level terms with a well-taken goal from Martin Harnik, who collected a pass from Daniel Ginczek before lobbing the ball over Ralf Fahrmann.

Huntelaar struck the post from a corner as Schalke threatened to hit back immediately, before Stuttgart finished the first half strongly and missed a decent chance when Georg Niedermeier headed wide.

Filip Kostic was causing problems for the hosts on a regular basis, and his trickery on the wing almost handed Stuttgart the lead when Harnik struck an effort straight at Fahrmann.

It was Kostic who made an impact a few moments later as he benefited from another defence-splitting pass from Ginczek to pick out the bottom corner.

Despite dominating possession for long spells of the second half, Schalke struggled to create chances for the likes of Huntelaar and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting, who drifted in and out of the game.

However, the hosts managed to take the chance when it came as substitute Kevin-Prince Boateng found the space to pick out Huntelaar, who kept his composure to fire home.

There would be one final twist as confusion in the Stuttgart defence allowed Boateng to unleash a volley which deflected off Florian Klein and into the back of the net to give the home side all three points.