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Hoffenheim held by Frankfurt
MATCH REPORT
1899 Hoffenheim were rewarded for some early pressure against an Eintracht Frankfurt side four places below them in the Bundesliga. Ibisevic was brought down in the Frankfurt box by Teber following a good through ball from Obasi, which the referee awarded with a penalty. From the spot Sejad Salihovic made no mistakes to give the home side the lead after just nine minutes at the Rhein-Neckar arena.
Frankfurt responded having conceded early on, while Hoffenheim sat back and defended their slender lead. But Ralf Rangnick's side remained strong in defence, rarely allowing the visitors any real chances on goal. After 20 minutes Teber almost made up for his earlier mistake as his attempt crashed into the upright. However, Hoffenheim managed to hold to their lead until half time.
After the restart there was a noticeable increase in standard from the home side. Compper had a good headed chance on 47 minutes and eight minutes later Obasi almost extended Hoffenheim's lead as the Nigerian found himself through on goal only to slash his shot harmlessly wide. Frankfurt too looked to threaten the Hoffenheim goal. Schwegler's long range effort took a deflection leaving Hildebrand stranded as the ball flew over the Hoffenheim keeper and into the back of the net to provide the guests with the equaliser.
Neither side really threatened as the second half progressed, as the two teams failed to create any clear cut chances to clinch the game. Hoffenheim remain in sixth spot in the league on 25 points and will host struggling Stuttgart on the final matchday of 2009.
POST MATCH QUOTES
Josip Simunic
Of course we are disappointed, at the end of the day, we dropped two points. It's important to win combative games like today and we simply didn't do that. Unfortunately, we haven't been playing the way we want to at home recently. We weren't clever enough today.
Selim Teber
We played well today and prevented Hoffenheim from getting into the game. It was a deserved draw. I looked forward to this game a lot, since I still have a lot of friends here.
Marvin Compper
We struggled today and never managed to perform the way we had set out to. We often lost the ball too easily.
Pirmin Schwegler
We had a lot of confidence going into this game following our two victories and we managed a good performance. We started the game well and when we noticed that Hoffenheim weren't pushing for the second goal, we increased our effort and were rewarded.
Christian Eichner
We can't get anything going for us at home at the moment. We're currently playing better in our away games.
Heribert Bruchhagen
We played a very solid football game today and Hoffenheim struggled to find their way into the game. The draw is completely deserved.
Ralf Rangnick
It was poor first half, despite taking the 1-0 lead. The start of the second half was better, but due to the rather lucky equaliser we were under pressure to score a second goal. Obasi had a huge chance to make it 2-0, that would have been really important for us. Carlos Eduardo didn't play from the start, as he appeared to be tired and exhausted in this week's training sessions. Almost everyone saw the handball in the second half, unfortunately for us, it was the wrong two people who didn't see it.
Michael Skibbe
I'm happy with the performance of my team. We controlled the game and the ball very well. We merely failed to create more clear cut chances in the first half. But we improved in the second half. Prior to the game, we had planned to at least take a point from here. I'm satisfied with the performance of Selim Teber. He had a few inconsistencies at the start of the game, but eventually combined well and was a constant presence in the midfield. He has proven several times now, that he can be a key player for us.
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