Carles Martinez felt the final scoreline flattered Stuttgart after seeing his Bayer Leverkusen side slump to back-to-back Bundesliga defeats, losing 4-2 at the BayArena on Saturday.

Six days on from a 3-0 loss at Hoffenheim, Leverkusen were on the wrong side of a six-goal thriller at home, with Ermedin Demirovic scoring twice for Stuttgart.

Jamie Leweling and Bilal El Khannouss also netted for the visitors, who surged into a 4-1 lead by the 65th minute, with Patrik Schick and Ibrahim Maza getting Leverkusen's goals. 

Leverkusen have conceded more than three goals in only two of their last 43 Bundesliga matches, both of which were at home to Stuttgart (also a 1-4 loss in January).

Both teams overperformed their respective expected goals figures, with Leverkusen posting 1.8 xG to Stuttgart's 2.6, but Martinez felt his side were unfortunate to lose by a margin of multiple goals.

"In my opinion, the scoreline was too high for the open game it was," Martinez said at his post-match press conference. 

"We could have scored more than just one goal, particularly in the first half.

"I saw a lot of things from my team that I'm happy with, but of course, we want to improve so that we can win this sort of match as well.

"Right now, we need to focus on recovering so that we can do better again on Thursday."

Disappointed with the result today, but together we will bounce back.  #B04VfB https://t.co/3qdQa0UX9O

— Bayer 04 Leverkusen (@bayer04_en) October 31, 2026

Leverkusen are next in action against Marseille in the Europa League, having won all three of their matches in that competition so far this season.

And midfielder Robert Andrich echoed the thoughts of his head coach, insisting Leverkusen's application was spot-on, despite the frustrating result.

"It was a real battle – you could see just how much was at stake. Unfortunately, we didn't win it in the end," Andrich said. "We gave our all and fought hard in every challenge. 

"We were absolutely determined to win; as far as our mentality and determination are concerned, we've got nothing to reproach ourselves for."

The nine goals conceded by Leverkusen across their last three games in all competitions (also a 5-2 win over Nurnberg in the DFB-Pokal) are as many as they shipped in their first 10 matches of 2026-27 combined.

Saturday's loss was their first at home under Martinez in the Bundesliga (W3), and with just 13 points on the board after eight matchdays, this is their worst start to a campaign in four years (five points in 2022-23).