Augsburg, who were so strong in the second half of the season, have to take a lot at TSG Hoffenheim. In the end, Demirovic’s 15th goal of the season is not enough.
Wout Weghorst formed a heart with his hands in the direction of the spectators, Maximilian Beier, who was scoreless this time, waved a jersey over his head like a lasso: The two offensive forces of TSG 1899 Hoffenheim celebrated their first victory in the Bundesliga after three defeats with exuberant joy in series.
With the 3-1 (2-0) win in their own stadium against FC Augsburg, coach Pellegrino Matarazzo’s team also put a damper on their direct rivals in the fight for a place in the European Cup. A series of five games unbeaten also ended for the guests.
Weghorst (17th minute) with his sixth goal and Andrej Kramaric (20th) with his ninth goal of the season gave Hoffenheim an early cushion. Ermedin Demirovic (61st) made things exciting again for FCA with his 15th goal in this round. Coach Jess Thorup’s team chased after the deficit in vain in front of 28,881 spectators. Joker Ihlas Bebou (90th) made everything clear. Augsburg, Hoffenheim and SC Freiburg are now 36 points each behind sixth-placed Eintracht Frankfurt (42).
Weghorst: “That’s absolutely a relief”
“That was a great goal,” said Weghorst on DAZN, praising Bebou’s goal from a tight angle and was happy about the home win: “That’s absolutely a relief.” Hoffenheim were confident in the first 30 minutes, but later there were too many easy ball losses. “In the end it was very good with our work ethic. You could see that again today that we tried everything from the first to the last minute to get the three points. In the end I think it was a deserved victory. “
Augsburg coach Jess Thorup, on the other hand, found that his team was the better over 70 minutes after a weak start and a system change. “Unfortunately in the end we lost the game and we are disappointed about that,” said the Dane. “We really don’t look at Europe. We look from week to week. There are still six games left in the season. We want to get the maximum out of it, then we’ll see what happens at the end,” said attacker Phillip Tietz.
The guests had only just sorted themselves out when Kristijan Jakic had to leave the field after twelve minutes with ankle problems. Just a few minutes later, FCA appeared powerless against a lightning counterattack by Hoffenheim: Weghorst initiated it himself and pushed the ball into the net after a cross from Pavel Kaderabek. The next counterattack, when a ball was intercepted by goalkeeper Finn Dahmen, also happened much too quickly for the Fuggerstadt team: Kramaric took the measure from 18 meters and hit the right corner with a shot – 2-0.
FCA only showed courage after the break
A week after the late defeat at leaders Bayer Leverkusen, TSG confidently played down the first half. Goalkeeper Oliver Baumann only had to save once against the agile Ruben Vargas when David Jurasek let the FCA playmaker run (42nd).
Arne Engels sent a sign of life immediately after the break, with Baumann just deflecting his touch-down shot around the post. The guests now played more courageously. A deflected shot from Arne Maier landed on the post (56th) – and then Demirovic scored after a pass from Tietz. In the 81st minute, Weghorst saved the hosts’ lead with a header from Patric Pfeifer on the line before substitute Bebou made the difference.
Source: Stern
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