Serey Dié during his first Bundesliga game.

Bitter end

Until mere seconds before the final whistle, it looked as though VfB would be taking a point from TSG Hoffenheim, but in the end, the score-line was to read 2-1 (1-1) in the hosts favour. In spite of the final result, Huub Stevens’ put on a determined display, on the day when Serey Dié made his Bundesliga debut.

Huub Stevens made two changes to the side that began against FC Bayern Munich, with Timo Werner and Martin Harnik getting the nod on this occasion ahead of Vedad Ibisevic and Daniel Schwaab. New signing Serey Dié, who trained with the team for the first time on Friday, was in the squad and took a place on the substitute’s bench.

Almost 3,000 fans from Stuttgart made the trip to Sinsheim to get behind their team and saw the Cannstatt Boys make a committed start, chasing down their opponents and leaving little room for TSG to operate in. Much of the action was confined to the midfield, where a distinctly physical element saw referee Tobias Welz produce the fist yellow card oft he tie after just nine minutes for Hoffenheim‘s Pirmin Schwegler. 

The first shot on goal in the game came from TSG striker Sven Schipplock (6‘), with Florian Klein answering with an effort at the other end (21‘). With a half-hour played, the hosts then took the lead from a set-piece. The free-kick delivery was initially cleared, but only as far as Roberto Firmino, who made no mistake in converting.

Just minutes later, another set-piece was to set up VfB’s equaliser. The ball had been cleared by the Hoffenheim defence, but Gotoku Sakai reacted quickest to the loose ball, driving a shot goal-wards, which eventually found the back of the net thanks to a fortunate deflection off a TSG defender. With the score-line locked at 1-1, the teams went into the break.