TSG Hoffenheim beats Bayer Leverkusen 3:0, ending six straight competitive wins

Late goals settle a goalless match

TSG 1899 Hoffenheim beat Bayer Leverkusen 3:0 on Sunday, 25 October, in front of 27,378 spectators at the arena in Sinsheim. The score stayed 0:0 for almost 80 minutes before substitute Andrej Kramaric converted a penalty in the 79th minute. Alexander Prass added the second goal in the 89th minute, and Max Moerstedt completed the win in stoppage time (90+6). The defeat ended Leverkusen's run of six straight competitive wins and left the visitors on 13 points, still in the leading group of the table. For Hoffenheim it was their fourth win of the season and their 1000th Bundesliga goal, a milestone that Kramaric's penalty delivered.

A quiet first half under heavy rain

Heavy rain soaked the pitch and kept the match sparse for long stretches. Leverkusen's Nathan Tella sent a shot narrowly past the post in the 7th minute, while Fisnik Asllani's effort in the 12th minute was saved by goalkeeper Mark Flekken. Adam Hlozek, a former Bayer player, had two early shots for Hoffenheim and then hit the post in the 38th minute, with Alexander Prass's follow-up landing well wide. Leverkusen's new coach Carles Martinez had seen his side score at least twice in each of its first ten competitive matches, a Bundesliga best according to the data provider Opta, but this was his second defeat in charge. Moussa Diaby left the pitch before half-time with a thigh injury and was replaced by Malik Tillman.

Referee swap and a collision before the late goals

Referee Daniel Siebert, who had a calf injury, could not continue after 45 minutes, and Robert Hartmann took over. Die Welt reported that Leverkusen's Robert Andrich spoke briefly with Siebert after he left, and the restart came almost five minutes later. Siebert then talked with Lutz Wagner, the German Football Association's current instructor for referees. Later, Max Moerstedt and Leverkusen's Loic Badé collided heads near the centre circle, and both lay on the pitch for several minutes. Badé was carried off on a stretcher while dazed, whereas Moerstedt played on and scored the final goal.

Prass's shirt celebration and the pre-match warning

Proass was shown a yellow-red card for taking off his shirt while celebrating his goal, and he quickly pulled it back on, but that did not change the dismissal. Before the match, Hoffenheim's sporting director Andreas Schicker had warned about Leverkusen in a broadcast on Dazn.

“If you let them play and give them space, they are brutally dangerous.”

Hoffenheim then denied Leverkusen room and time to combine, were aggressive in the duels, and kept the visitors from building attacks. Patrik Schick's scoring run ended, as he and the team failed to score in a Bundesliga match this season for the first time.