FIRST TEAM
05/08/2010

Hoffenheim end the season with a 1-1 draw against Stuttgart

1899 Hoffenheim ended the 2009/10 season with a 1-1 draw with VfB Stuttgart in front of a sold-out 30,150 crowd at the Rhein-Neckar-Arena.

It took a while for proceedings to really get underway in Hoffenheim, with VfB taking the advantage 19 minutes in when Ciprian Marica feeding strike partner Cacau, who finished with aplomb past Daniel Haas in the 1899 goal to give the visitors a surprise lead considering the balance of play.

Undeterred, Hoffenheim fought back and created a string of chances. Sejad Salihovic and Vedad Ibisevic both went close before the equaliser finally arrived. Youngster Boris Vukcevic was the scorer, powering home a header past the retiring Jens Lehmann to restore parity. Salihovic could well have given 1899 the lead shortly before the break, but his strike rebounded off the inside of the post.

The first chance of the second period went Stuttgart's way, Marica beating Simunic before bearing down on Haas, but Marvin Compper was on hand to put the Romanian off, allowing Haas to make the save with his feet. Hoffenheim then began to press with the impressive Maicosuel crossing superbly for Carlos Eduardo, who crashed the ball against the underside of the bar in the centre.

Ralf Rangnick's side continued to dominate in the final half hour, though the final pass was ultimately lacking. Maicosuel should really have done better when he popped up free in front of goal following an Andreas Beck cross, but the Brazilian hesitated and was caught in possession. Prince Tagoe again threatened with a header late on, but the scores remained the same and the points were shared.

Quotes

Daniel Haas
It was a reasonable end to the season. The fans enjoyed themselves and we played well again.

Marvin Compper
It was another good performance from us. We fought, created many chances and gave the fans a decent final showing.

Christian Gross
It's great that we managed to secure a place in the Europa League. The longer the match went on, the more we seemed to lose control in midfield and we gave them a good few chances. In the end we were lucky Hoffenheim were too imprecise with their finishing.

Ralf Rangnick
We did exactly what we planned to do - to continue where we left of last week. In terms of energy and passion we did everything right, but unfortunately we went behind. It was hard to stop VfB countering. The only annoying thing is that we failed to convert our chances. I think we would have deserved the three points.

 

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