Injury-time winner snatches point from Hoffenheim

Having never won at home against the Bavarians and in their first midweek match in the Bundesliga, Hoffenheim were determined to set the record straight and claim all three points for the very first time. Ralf Rangnick made one change to the side, which drew against 1. FC Kaiserslautern, bringing in Sebastian Rudy in place of Peniel Kokou Mlapa, while Daniel Haas retained his place in goal. Louis van Gaal, however, decided to stick with the same starting eleven as he looked for them to bounce back from their disappointing 0-0 draw against 1. FC Köln.

Hoffenheim quick out of the blocks

The match had barely started when the home fans were already on their feet celebrating a Vedad Ibisevic goal. New signing Sebastian Rudy had caught out Bayern left-back, Contento, and stealing the ball from the youngster he laid the simplest of passes across for the Bosnian striker to finish in off the right hand post for the fastest goal of the season so far. Following the opener, Bayern began exerting more pressure on the home side and it almost led to a response when, in the 15th minute, Toni Kroos found himself alone in front of goal only for the midfielder to square the ball to an offside Miroslav Klose, squandering the chance. The match continued to be played at a high tempo but only Sejad Salihovic was able to come close to another goal. His free-kick in the 41st minute was struck perfectly, but despite having Hans Jörg Butt well and truly beaten, it could not find its' way into the net and instead clattered off the right hand post for the only other chance of noteworthiness in the first half.

So close and yet so far

Both managers made changes at half-time with van Gaal bringing on Danijel Pranjic and Ivica Olic on for Diego Contento and Toni Kroos, who had admittedly had poor first halves, while Rangnick brought on Boris Vukcevic in place of Tobias Weis, who had picked up a yellow card earlier in the match. The changes had an immediate effect with Bayern really putting pressure on the hosts. However, it was the Hoffenheim substitute that created the first real opening, in the 57th minute, forcing his way through the Bayern backline only to see his shot roll agonisingly wide. Then just as 1899 seemed to be on the front foot, Bayern found a way through thanks to good work by Franck Ribery. The Frenchman, who was injured in the process, broke into the box only to see his shot parried by Haas. Fortunately for the reigning champions, Thomas Müller was on hand to smash in the rebound through a throng of players. From that point onwards it was all Bayern as they pushed for the win, with Hoffenheim trying to play on the counter attack. As the game wore on the words of manager Ralf Rangnick, who said that his team had to maintain a high standard of play for the whole 90 minutes if they wanted to take anything from the match, must have been ringing in the ears of his players. Sure enough a moment of indecision saw Bayern score in the first minute of injury time, when Daniel van Buyten poked in from close range, to complete the comeback after Holger Badstubers' free-kick caused confusion in the Hoffenheim penalty area. It will be a bitter pill to swallow for Rangnick's team but in the end the pressure was just too much for the young side.

 

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