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Line-up and team news: Head coach Ole Werner made five changes to the side that drew 2-2 in Mönchengladbach before the international break. Jiri Pavlenka, Marco Friedl, Christian Groß. Romano Schmid and Milos Veljkovic were all new faces in the starting XI against Hoffenheim.
Starting XI: Pavlenka – Jung, Stark, Ducksch, Weiser, Füllkrug, Veljkovic, Schmid, Schmidt, Friedl, Groß.
Bench: Zetterer – Pieper, Stage, Bittencourt, Philipp, Dinkci, Gruev, Mbom, Chiarodia.
Ducksch spurns his chances
First-half highlights:
8’: Füllkrug wins a free-kick on the left flank, and Ducksch crosses the ball into the box, which Baumann can easily gather.
13’: Bebou looks to be in on Pavlenka’s goal, but then Friedl slides in a gets the ball out for a corner, from which comes nothing threatening.
22: Friedl plays a good ball to Schmid, who then lays it off to Weiser. The right wing-back crosses the ball in, but there is no one there to get on the end of it.
26’: Bremen get their best chance so far: A quick counter sees Schmid, Schmidt and Ducksch combine, and Schmidt’s shot forces a save out of Baumann. However, the flag had already gone up for offside on Ducksch.
32’: Weiser and Schmid and Ducksch execute brilliant passing play, and it results in Werder’s number 7 curling the ball towards the top right corner, and he is denied only by a brilliant Baumann stop.
35’: Werder come down the right again, and Schmid seeks to set up Ducksch again, but he is tackled at the last moment by a defender.
37’: A misplaced TSG pass lands at the feet of Schmid, who immediately sends it on to Ducksch. The striker lets fly, but his shot is caught comfortably by Baumann.
A chaotic end to the game
Second-half highlights:
49’: Ducksch crosses perfectly for Füllkrug, who then lays it off to Schmid. His shot then ends up back at Füllkrug’s feet, who chips in towards the arriving Schmidt, but his header goes well wide.
50’: The ball is in the back of the Werder net. Andrej Kramarić heads in to make it 1-0 to Hoffenheim.
52’: A quickfire double! Christoph Baumgartner doubles TSG’s lead.
65’: Groß gets on the end of a long ball in the Hoffenheim box and tries to turn it home, but Bebou gets in the way and the ball goes out. The flag had also already gone up as Groß was offside.
72’: Weiser dribbles down the right excellently and crosses towards Füllkrug, but the Germany international is unable to turn it home.
74’: Jung has a shot from the right, but Baumann parries. It falls to Weiser, who has a go from range, but it is inadvertently blocked by teammate Ducksch.
76’: Substitute Amos Pieper scores with his first touch after coming on and reduces the deficit: 2-1!
86’: Philipp has a shot from outside the box, but his curling effort goes inches over the bar.
90’+2: Dincki dances down the left wing and squares to Philipp, whose shot crashes into the post.
90’+4: Penalty? A Hoffenheim player handles the ball in the area, but Weiser was offside in the build-up. Stegemann consults VAR and decides to chalk off the penalty he initially awarded.
90’+7: Full time! SV Werder Bremen lose 2-1 to TSG Hoffenheim.
Summary: After a quiet first half, TSG scored two quick goals in the second half and controlled large spells of the game. Werder came back towards the end and were able to halve the deficit, before it got chaotic towards the end. Stegemann initially pointed to the spot following a handball but overturned his decision due to Weiser being in an offside position, meaning Werder had to suffer a 2-1 loss.
Ducksch spurns his chances
First-half highlights:
8’: Füllkrug wins a free-kick on the left flank, and Ducksch crosses the ball into the box, which Baumann can easily gather.
13’: Bebou looks to be in on Pavlenka’s goal, but then Friedl slides in a gets the ball out for a corner, from which comes nothing threatening.
22: Friedl plays a good ball to Schmid, who then lays it off to Weiser. The right wing-back crosses the ball in, but there is no one there to get on the end of it.
26’: Bremen get their best chance so far: A quick counter sees Schmid, Schmidt and Ducksch combine, and Schmidt’s shot forces a save out of Baumann. However, the flag had already gone up for offside on Ducksch.
32’: Weiser and Schmid and Ducksch execute brilliant passing play, and it results in Werder’s number 7 curling the ball towards the top right corner, and he is denied only by a brilliant Baumann stop.
35’: Werder come down the right again, and Schmid seeks to set up Ducksch again, but he is tackled at the last moment by a defender.
37’: A misplaced TSG pass lands at the feet of Schmid, who immediately sends it on to Ducksch. The striker lets fly, but his shot is caught comfortably by Baumann.
