Fighting spirit not rewarded – TSG lose to Braunschweig

TSG's back four held a high line early on, the space in the middle of the park was made tight and Firmino, Schipplock, as well as Volland and Johnson, pressed Braunschweig's defence. Hoffenheim had a lot of the ball as a result and the home side rarely found themselves in Hoffenheim's half.

Salihovic comes on and fires – onto the post

After ten minutes, this all changed as Braunschweig started to come into the game, making things difficult for Hoffenheim. Boland put the ball over the line in the 14th minute, but it was disallowed due to an offside call. Hoffenheim just couldn't win the ball during this stage.

Gisdol reacted early on and brought Sejad Salihovic on for Jeremy Toljan, and the Bosnian had a great chance to give TSG the lead with his first shot. Firmino and Schipplock countered well and ‘Sali' shot from 20 yards but his effort hit the post. Unlucky!

Braunschweig score from the spot

Then, suddenly there was a penalty for the home side. After a header duel in Braunschweig's box, Winkmann saw a foul and pointed to the spot. Torsten Oehrl stepped up and scored, sending Jens Grahl the wrong way. Then Hoffenheim worked their way back into the game but when Schipplock suffered a similar foul in the box, there was no whistle.

The game got more intense before the break, with a lot of fouls breaking the game up. Winkmann even called over both managers so as to calm down their respective teams.

Centimetres away

After the break, Hoffenheim needed a few minutes to get themselves back into the swing of play. Nevertheless, they faced the fight with focus and aggression. In the 55th minute, Hoffenheim urgently sought the equaliser, Jannik Vestergaard came the closest but his header was cleared off the line on the hour mark.

As it did in the first half, a battle started to develop. Hoffenheim found hardly any space in the host's defence, before Perthel had to make a last-ditch tackle on Modeste, leaving Braunschweig with 10 men for the final ten minutes after he saw his second yellow card.

A fight to the end

In the 88th minute, Modeste had the chance to equalise after substitute Herdling's perfect pass, but he was distracted at the final moment and his shot went just over. Davari would have been left flat footed.

Hoffenheim's fight wasn't rewarded though, as Braunschweig saved themselves over time and collected the three points.

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