Hoffenheim continue to find goals hard to come by

In a first half of relatively few chances, Hoffenheim had the first real sight of goal on 25 minutes; Aaron Hunt did well to break into the box, and tried to pull the ball back to Tim Borowski, but was not accurate enough with his pass and the chance was gone.

TSG had started to assert their ascendancy a little bit more towards the end of the first half, but Bremen had the best chance just before the break, Hoffenheim goalkeeper Timo Hildebrand making an excellent reflex save from Per Mertesacker after a corner by Frings.

The game was lacking a certain something, and Bremen boss Thomas Schaaf decided to shake things up by introducing young prodigy Marko Marin to the action 67 minutes in, who was no doubt keen to impress to further stake his claim for a seat on the Germany plane to South Africa in the summer.

However, the game's only goal wasn't to come from his foot, but rather that of a much more established Bundesliga name- Claudio Pizarro, playing in his 100th Bundesliga game, becoming the hero for the away side on 81 minutes. After Jensen's pass had been misjudged by Josip Simunic, the Peruvian was on hand to loop the ball over Hildebrand, and get what proved to be the only goal of the game.

TSG 1899 Hoffenheim's inconsistent form goes on, and the side will have to make sure that they pick up points to avoid becoming embroiled in the relegation battle. Hoffenheim have a massive clash coming up next against 1. FC Nuremberg- a welcome victory should be enough to eleviate any relegation fears for the time being.

Quotes

Sejad Salihovic
We can't hang our heads in shame, we all pushed as hard as we could, we couldn't have done any more than we did. We were great in the middle of the park, but we lacked a cutting edge going forward.

Thomas Schaaf
We were happy with the three points. You could see that we had had a difficult game on Thursday night, but we were extrmely disciplined and didn't give much away. It looked forever as if it was going to be 0-0, but whoever was the first team to score looked like they would be the ones who won.

Ralf Rangnick
It was a game that looked like it was going to finish 0-0. My guys did well for long spells throughout the game. I'm gutted that we've come out of the game with nothing. The spectators here saw that we gave everything. Now we have a massive game in Nuremberg in which we have to take three points at all costs.

Christian Eichner
We can't quite manage to be as lethal as we should be in front of goal. We're in a tricky situation, and we need to show that we can be as good in front of goal as I know we can be, It's the first time that we've found ourselves in such a situation. We desperately need results.

Tim Wiese
Both teams were happy with a draw. We had a tricky game in Valencia, but Claudio is always a good bet to score a goal. So often he just needs one opportunity to decide a game.

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