Friendly defeat against Wolfsburg
TSG Hoffenheim got off to the brighter start and managed to fashion several chances, with the most promising of them falling to Christoph Baumgartner, whose outside-of-the-foot shot in the 21st minute whizzed just wide of the target. Not long afterwards, Oliver Baumann was called into action for the first time, but he was more than equal to Maximilian Arnold's free-kick effort (23).
Then, in the 30th minute, the deadlock was broken: Ihlas Bebou neatly worked his way into the box and was felled to the ground by a VfL defender, Robert Skov duly stepped up to fire home the resultant penalty. It looked like TSG would go in at half-time with a deserved lead, but in the 43rd minute, Luca Waldschmidt found the back of the net after being teed up by Ridle Baku to draw the two sides level at 1-1. The goal came from TSG giving the ball away in build-up play.
Both teams made changes at half-time, with Luca Philipp, Kevin Akpoguma, Sebastian Rudy and Munas Dabbur coming on for TSG. Kasper Dolberg played 67 minutes in his debut for the club. Breitenreiter made a total of ten changes, with Angeliño the only player to remain on the pitch for the full 90 minutes. The game sparked to life around the 70-minute mark: first Kevin Paredes netted for Wolfsburg (72), then TSG conjured up an instant response, as Skov played a one-two with Dabbur and fired home to make it 2-2 (73).
In the closing stages, TSG pushed hard for a winner, but their efforts went unrewarded. Instead it was Wolfsburg who landed the critical blow, as Jakub Kamisnki converted a chance in the 87th minute to bring the score to 3-2.
On Monday, TSG will play a friendly match against Servette FC. The meeting with the Swiss top-tier outfit will kick off at 16:00 CET. André Breitenreiter's side will travel back to Germany the following day.
Line-ups:
TSG Hoffenheim: Baumann (46, Philipp) – Ozan Kabak (46, Akpoguma), Vogt (76, Bičakčić), Nsoki (67, Quaresma) – Skov (76, Kadeřábek), Geiger (46, Rudy), Stiller (67, Bischof), Angeliño – Baumgartner (76, Becker) – Bebou (46, Dabbur), Dolberg (67, Damar)
VfL Wolfsburg: Casteels (46, Pervan) – Baku (46, Fischer), Lacroix (46, Bornauw), Guilavogui (46, Van de Ven), Otavio (46, Paredes) – Nmecha (46, Svanberg), Arnold (46, Franjic) – Waldschmidt (46, Wimmer), Ambros (46, Philipp), Marmoush (46, Kaminski) – Wind (46, Pejcinovic)
Goals: 1-0 Skov (penalty/30), 1-1 Waldschmidt (43), 1-2 Paredes (72), 2-2 Skov (73), 2-3 Kaminski (87)