Hoffenheim coach Pellegrino Matarazzo took a deep breath after the happy win in Bremen and stayed with his team in the dressing room for a long time. With a lot of luck, TSG got some air in the relegation battle.
Thanks to a double strike within two minutes, the Bundesliga soccer team clinched their second win in a row and are now three points ahead of the relegation rank. The club from the southwest benefited from a long weak performance by Werder Bremen and won the Hanseatic League 2-1 (0-0) at the end of the 26th matchday in the Weser Stadium.
“We conceded two incredibly cheap goals,” said Werder coach Ole Werner and said in front of the DAZN camera: “We weren’t the worse team.” Right at the beginning of the second half, Andrej Kramaric (50th minute) and Christoph Baumgartner (52nd) shocked the hosts and a large part of the 41,000 spectators in the sold-out stadium.
Bremen in added time unlucky
“The double strike was extremely important to pull the game on our side,” said Baumgartner. Central defender Amos Pieper (76′), who had just come on as a substitute, made the connection and scored the third header of the evening. “It hurts extremely, and my goal doesn’t help either,” said Pieper.
Maximilian Philipp hit the post for Werder in injury time. And because Mitchell Weiser was offside, referee Sascha Stegemann took back a hand penalty that had already been given. “It was offside. That’s bitter because you’re already looking forward to it. I didn’t even notice it, but it was relatively clear,” said Weiser. “It was off and we don’t have to discuss it much,” said his coach.
Hoffenheim smarter and stronger in the duels
The Bundesliga top scorer Niclas Füllkrug, who scored three goals for the national team during the international break, remained pale and was symptomatic of an unfortunate performance by the Hanseatic League. Hoffenheim acted smarter, were more present in duels and made fewer mistakes than the home side. Bremen remain in midfield, but Werner’s team has been waiting for a win for four games now.
The point win also took the pressure off the last counted Hoffenheim coach Matarazzo. The opponents from the southwest had previously won only one of the last eight league games. TSG has been fighting relegation in the league for weeks. The “next attack” and “power, anger and energy” announced by Matarazzo was initially at least rudimentary, because the guests – in the initial phase the slightly more active team – came after the recovered Werder captain Marco Friedl (7th minute) lost the ball .) and after a fine pass from Christoph Baumgartner to Ihlas Bebou (13th) to promising goal approaches.
In addition to Friedl, the recovered regulars Milos Veljkovic and Christian Groß returned to the starting XI. In comparison to the starting XI in the 3-1 win against Hertha BSC, defender Angelino and midfielder Finn Ole Becker started for the guests in place of Robert Skov and Angelo Stiller, who were absent due to muscular problems.
Bremen often acted too complicated in the first half and attracted attention with bad passes and ball losses. The well-known long passes to DFB striker Füllkrug often had no effect, as Hoffenheim’s central defender John Anthony Brooks kept the upper hand in the air.
