Firmino leads rout of Hamburg
Hamburg - A wonderful performance from 1899 Hoffenheim’s Roberto Firmino crowned by two goals and three assists propelled his side to a 5-1 rout over Hamburger SV.
Floodgates
Firmino scored a powerful header to open the scoring early on, making it the second time this season Hamburg have conceded in the first five minutes. Hoffenheim’s tactic to close Hamburg down was working perfectly until a penalty was awarded for handball in the 43rd minute. There was never any doubt as to who was going to take it as Rafael van der Vaart caressed his second spot-kick in as many games into the corner to send the sides in level at the break.
Kevin Volland started the second half imposingly with a goal in the 51st minute, and his side never looked back, with new signing Anthony Modeste scoring his second Bundesliga goal with a clever near-post finish from Firmino’s cross. His third goal after 74 minutes would prove a similar formality as Firmino beat his marker on the break and rolled a ball across the box for the Frenchman to finish and make the score 4-1.
Hamburg were despondent, and to rub salt into their gaping wounds, Firmino got his name on the scoresheet again with a 78th-minute snapshot into the bottom corner of Rene Adler’s goal to put the gloss on a wonderful display, leaving his side with four points from their opening two fixtures.
Line-ups and statistics
