1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to more DW sites

Hoffenheim come out on top in Frankfurt thriller

Ross DunbarDecember 12, 2014

Roberto Firmino's late winner separated Hoffenheim and Frankfurt who played out a five-goal thriller. The hosts are now joint on 23 points with four other clubs for the last Champions League place.

https://p.dw.com/p/1E3WW
Erste Bundesliga - TSG 1899 Hoffenheim - Eintracht Frankfurt 12.12.2014
Image: Getty Images/A. Grimm

Roberto Firmino scored in the 87th minute to hand Hoffenheim a 3-2 win over Eintracht Frankfurt and boost their hopes of competing for a place in the Champions League.

Firmino's scrappy goal finished off a five-goal encounter with many chances falling to each side in the closing stages of the game.

A bright start came to an abrupt halt in the sixth minute when Haris Seferovic clashed with Hoffenheim's promising young defender Niklas Süle.

While the striker took a bang on the head, Süle came off worse and was stretchered off with an injury to his left-knee.

It disrupted the flow of the game, especially for the visitors, for whom it had looked fairly bright with some quick long-balls from the back.

However, Markus Gisdol's men took charge, creating the best chances of a slow first-half with Tarik Elyounoussi missing from close range before the half hour mark.

The Sinsheim club found the room to take the lead, two minutes before the break. Volland steamed through the Frankfurt defense and rounded Hildebrand, slotting home his third goal of the season.

Fight from Frankfurt

Erste Bundesliga - TSG 1899 Hoffenheim - Eintracht Frankfurt 12.12.2014
Hoffenheim came out on top to end Frankfurt's three-game winning runImage: Getty Images/A. Grimm

Even with the lead heading into the interval, Frankfurt returned to the field galvanized and had a few efforts at goal through Alex Meier and Seferovic.

But it was midfielder Stefan Aigner who equalized in the 58th minute, deftly flicking the ball home from Bastian Oczipka's cross.

Parity was short-lived: Gisdol introduced Adam Szalai for the ineffective Anthony Modeste and within three minutes, the Hungarian forward tucked home the second for the home side.

A diagonal ball was played to Pirmin Schwegler, the former Eintracht captain, who volleyed across the face of goal with Szalai diverting the ball over the line from a few yards out.

A one-goal lead was always dangerous and Elyounoussi missed a handful of chances to add a third, including one strike that struck the inside of the post.

And within seconds, Frankfurt were level for a second time. Substitute Lucas Piazon played the ball through the Hoffenheim defense to the powerful Seferovic who shrugged off the defender and netted his sixth of the season.

But from all of the chances in the last three or four minutes, at either end of the park, Firmino's toe-poke from a few yards out proved to be the decisive winner.

Hoffenheim are two points clear of Frankfurt and joint fourth-place.