Felix Magath's second stint at the Wolfsburg helm ended in a frustrating 1-1 stalemate as Stuttgart scrambled a last-gasp equaliser at the Mercedes-Benz Arena.
Magath, who led the Wolves to the Bundesliga title in 2009, returned to the club this week just 48 hours after leaving Schalke by mutual consent and appeared set to collect all the points on his return after Grafite opened the scoring in the 40th minute.
But deep into second-half stoppage time, Georg Niedermeier popped up with a dramatic equaliser for the hosts to thwart Magath's hopes of a victorious homecoming and leave the Wolves still languishing inside the bottom three.
A cagey opening brought little in the way of openings in the first half-hour, with Stefano Celozzi's 30-yard speculative effort for Stuttgart the only chance of note.
Christian Trasch flashed a shot wide of the right post as Stuttgart looked to up the ante, but the closing moments of the half belonged to Wolfsburg with Diego's turn and shot bringing a smart stop from Sven Ulreich moments before Grafite made the breakthrough.
The Brazilian striker has promised to score eight goals over the final eight games of the season to help his side avoid the drop, and is already on course to delivering on that pledge as he fired home into the top-left corner of the net after the Stuttgart defence failed to clear their lines.
The Wolves might have wrapped up the point on 65 minutes when Jan Polak's poked effort from a Diego free-kick struck the left upright. As it was, Stuttgart raised their game in the final 15 minutes, twice going close through Pavel Pogrebnyak headers before snatching a point in a frantic finale.
With the Wolves backline creaking in the fourth minute of added time, Trasch picked out Niedermeier in front of goal, and the defender kept his cool to slot the ball into the left corner to spark delight in the stands.