You have to stop an edge like Wout Weghorst: The TSG 1899 Hoffenheim does not succeed in the Bundesliga. The 1.97 meter man from VfL Wolfsburg is the match winner.
Sinsheim (dpa) - Wout Weghorst not only cheers the fans of VfL Wolfsburg, but even tears of joy.
After his three goals in the 3: 2 (1: 1) win at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim, a boy in the stands got the jersey of the match winner - and initially lost his composure. "If you see that you can make someone so happy, it's even nicer," said the Dutch striker of the Bundesliga club.
Weghorst also gave coach Oliver Glasner's team a lot of confidence before the first knockout game in Europa Legaue on Thursday against Malmö FF. "In this phase, victory is extremely important for us," said the 1.97 meter man.
Not only Weghorst, but also the video assistants had caused a lot of excitement. The striker scored the interim 2: 1 after a dubious penalty kick (52nd minute). "For me it is clearly not a penalty," said Benjamin Hübner later. Hoffenheim's captain, like the 22,506 spectators in Sinsheim, was surprised that referee Sören Storks initially let the game continue, but then decided on a penalty. Wolfsburg's Kevin Mbabu got stuck in the penalty area in the penalty area before Huebner hit him. In any case, Weghorst converted to 2: 1.
At the Kraichgauer, regular goalkeeper Oliver Bauman made his debut in 2020 after surviving a meniscus injury and pushed Philipp Pentke back onto the bench. The 29-year-old was presented with a penalty as the first test: Weghorst safely converted to the lead (18th). This was preceded by a clear handball by Sebastian Rudy when he tried to block the ball from Xaver Schlager.
So a special game of the international started very unfortunate: Rudy equaled on Saturday with record player Andreas Beck, who played 216 times for Hoffenheim. He and Kramaric had previously driven the Hoffenheim team forward. The Croatian World Cup runner-up had every reason to draw attention to himself: his national coach Zlatko Dalic was sitting in the stands.
After Weghorst's goal, the guests pushed their game more and more. And in the 40th minute they cheered again: The attacker had prevailed in the header duel against TSG captain Benjamin Hübner, Admir Mehmedi pushed the ball over the line. But after consultation with the video assistants, Referee Storks rightly took the hit back - Mehmedi was offside.
Just five minutes later, the Wolfsburg looked horrified again: Baumgartner headed to 1-1 (45th) - on the flank of the busy Kramaric. Storks and his VAR helpers Deniz Aytekin and Eduard Beitinger in the Cologne basement also had their influence on the equalization by Kramaric (60.): Because Weghorst had committed a handball in the wall, there was a third penalty.
The trainers Alfred Schreuder and Glasner did not want to complain about the referee. "The referees have been criticized a lot lately. It was very difficult today, but he did very, very well," said Glasner.
There were no discussions after the winning goal for 3-2 by Weghorst - his tenth goal of the season (71.). Hoffenheim suffered a further setback in the fight for one of the international places and does not really make any progress in its development process under Schreuder. "We were extremely weak in football in the first half," admitted the Dutchman.
Squad Hoffenheim
Schedule Hoffenheim
Squad VfL Wolfsburg
Schedule VfL Wolfsburg
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