Adam Szalai on target as Hoffenheim fight back to beat Freiburg
Hoffenheim beat Freiburg 3-1 at the WIRSOL Rhein-Neckar-Arena, with Adam Szalai scoring twice before Andrej Kramaric's late goal to cancel out Domique Heintz’s opener for visiting Freiburg.
Hoffenheim 3-1 Freiburg
Goals: 0-1 Heintz (36’), 1-1 Szalai (50’), 1-2 Szalai (63’), 1-3 Kramaric (93')
Leonardo Bittencourt thought he’d opened the scoring for hosts Hoffenheim inside the first 10 minutes, but after heading home Adam Szalai’s parried shot, his effort was ruled out by VAR. Kevin Akpoguma replaced the injured Ermin Bicakcic midway through the first half, but Hoffenheim continued to dominate. It was against the run of play, then, when Heintz made it 1-0 at the other end, getting the break of the ball after a Jerome Gondorf free-kick to steer home his first Freiburg goal.
An Akpoguma injury meant Havard Nordtveit came out for the second half, and despite the defensive shuffling, Julian Nagelsmann’s side were back on level terms less than 10 minutes later. Pavel Kaderabek’s cross from the right left the Freiburg defence in sixes and sevens, and Szalai was on hand to poke home his first of the campaign. The Hungary striker doubled his tally past the hour, latching onto recent Germany call-up Nico Schultz’s low cross. Hoffenheim added insult to injury-time for Freiburg with the final kick, Kramaric steering into an empty net following a counter.
Match stats
- All five of Sazalai’s goals last season came in the Rückrunde.Only Bayern collected more points at home (44) than Hoffenheim (37) last term.Freiburg are now winless in their last 11 Bundesliga away matchesHeintz’s last Bundesliga goal came back in October 2017, in a narrow 2-1 loss for Cologne against VfB Stuttgart.Hoffenhein keeper Oliver Baumann played 131 Bundesliga games for Freiburg before joining the Sinsheimers in 2014.A back problem against Frankfurt meant Christian Streich missed a Bundesliga match for the first time since taking charge of Freiburg in 2011.
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Line-ups
Hoffenheim: Baumann – Bicakcic (Akpoguma 19’ (Nordtveidt 46’)), Vogt (c), Adams (Kramaric 44’) – Kaderabek, Grillitsch, Schulz – Bittencourt, Zuber – Joelinton, Szalai
Unused subs: Kobel, Brenet, Belfodil, Grifo
Absentees: Amiri (foot), Bicakcic (Achilles), Demirbay (ankle), Hübner (concussion), Geiger (thigh), Otto, Rupp (both knee)
Coach: Julian Nagelsmann
Freiburg: Schwolow - Stenzel, Guide (Koch 89'), Heintz, Günter - Höfler - Höler (Terrazzino 66'), Gondorf, Frantz (c) - Petersen, Niederlechner (Waldschmidt 81')
Unused subs: Flekken, Lienhart, Kübler, Kath
Absentses: Borello, Haberer, Stanko (all knee), Kleindienst (back), Abrashi (fitness)
Coach: Christian Streich
As it happened