Take a look at our newest merchandise
Key occasions
74 minutes: A fraction of an opportunity for Spurs. Porro’s cross from the best by some means bounces by way of to Son, however he’s as shocked by this growth as everybody else and might’t management it.
70 minutes: Tottenham have been completely execrable since half-time. They’ve had no concept easy methods to flip possession of their defensive third into possession of their attacking third, and so have simply repeatedly biffed the ball aimlessly upfield and gifted it to their opponents.
GOAL! Hoffenheim 1-2 Tottenham (Stach, 68 minutes)
It’s been coming, and now it’s come! Stach begins the break with a fantastic cross out to Kramaric from his personal half and from there he retains operating. Kramaric passes on to Jurasek, and his low cross from the left finds Stach six yards out. His end is by no means convincing, however the ball spins in on the again stick!
No penalty!
66 minutes: Austin had additionally been proven a yellow card, and that call can be reversed. It took one of the best a part of 5 minutes to reverse that call, however we bought to the best place ultimately.
65 minutes: Austin will get his fingers to the ball first. And he additionally doesn’t foul Moerstedt in any respect. It could be a rare penalty award.
64 minutes: In truth, maybe he has! Now the referee has been known as to the replay display.
64 minutes: The VAR has not overruled it!
Hoffenheim have a penalty!
62 minutes: A deflected cross from the best. Moerstedt and Austin each soar for it, the ahead heads it over the bar after which the 2 collide. The referee offers a penalty, nevertheless it’s by no means clear to me who collided with whom. It appears a really beneficiant determination to me, and maybe VAR will overrule it.
60 minutes: Bischof tries to chip Austin from the sting of the realm, the ball finally dropping a foot huge of the far submit with the keeper helpless. It could have been a fantastic thing about a aim.
60 minutes: By some means nothing is kind of dropping for Hoffenheim contained in the Spurs penalty space, however the guests are hanging on a bit grimly at current.
58 minutes: Spurs have a uncommon foray ahead. It ends with Moor recognizing Son sprinting unmarked into the penalty space, and the referee recognizing that the explanation he’s unmarked is that N’Soki is on the bottom. He offers a free-kick towards the Korean.
56 minutes: Spurs make a change, Mikey Moore approaching for Richarlison, who was by no means going to play far more than an hour as he returns from damage.
55 minutes: Now they make an opportunity! Kaderabek crosses from the best, Kramaric has a free header on the again submit, and his try and ship a looping header again throughout aim and into the highest nook finally ends up hitting the highest of the bar!
54 minutes: Hoffenheim actually aren’t attacking with nice high quality, however Tottenham’s makes an attempt to interrupt thus far this half have been completely pitiful so that they hold coming.
51 minutes: Spurs have achieved completely nothing this half. A replay of that Kramaric penalty shout is fairly embarrassing for the Croatian.
50 minutes: Kramaric goes down seeking a penalty, and stays there for some time after he fails to get it, however there’s nothing doing.
48 minutes: Hoffenheim have began the half on the entrance foot. They’re not a massively speedy or dynamic facet, however they’re getting numbers ahead and inflicting hassle consequently.
46 minutes: Peeeeep! Soccer is as soon as once more being performed. “This can be a nice matchup for neutrals like me who wish to mash phrases collectively,” writes Peter Oh (brace your self for what’s coming, reader). “I don’t care who wins, Hoffenham or Tottenheim, Hoffentotten or Heimham, Tottenhoffen or Hamheim.”
The gamers are again out! No halftimely modifications by the look of issues.
Half time: Hoffenheim 0-2 Tottenham
45+2 minutes: And that’s just about the final kick of the half! Not utterly convincing from Spurs, however within the circumstances they’ll take a two-goal lead and look grateful about it.
45+1 minutes: Proper on the finish of stoppage time Hoffenheim make their finest likelihood of the half, a pull-back that runs to Becker, in all types of area 15 yards out. He can choose his spot, and the spot he picks is Dragusin’s shin!
45 minutes: Nice save from Baumann! Spurs win a free-kick on the left, cross it into the realm and Bergvall wins the header. He doesn’t head it cleanly besides it takes a superb diving cease to maintain it out!
44 minutes: Tottenham’s finest transfer for some time is kick-started by Kulusevski and Bregvall exchanging backheels in their very own half to beat the press, and just about ends when Richarlison’s cross, supposed for Maddison, is hit straight right into a defender.
40 minutes: Hlozek’s shot is deflected in the direction of Moerstedt. Dragusin completely throws himself on the ball however barely touches it together with his head, and Moerstedt has a fast shot whereas off steadiness that Austin saves.
38 minutes: The house facet are having a little bit of a spell. The win a nook, which is performed quick after which crossed straight into the arms of Austin. He spots Kulusevski on the midway line and boots the ball all the way down to him, and maybe a aim would have resulted if the Swede have been rather a lot faster.
38 minutes: The ball is performed in to Stach, on the sting of a penalty space surprisingly devoid of defenders. However his first contact is poor, and Porro wins it.
36 minutes: A lot of the stats (clearly excluding the one which issues) are just about stage. Uefa presently have possession at 50-50, Hoffenheim main 163-159 on passes accomplished and 8-5 on complete makes an attempt. Spurs lead by two.
33 minutes: Save! It’s a very good low shot from Bischof, hit low to the best of Brandon Austin, however with out nice energy and the keeper pushes it to security.
31 minutes: I don’t know if the microphones are damaged or a sound engineer hasn’t bought the steadiness proper, however the crowd noise on the TV footage is admittedly quiet and has been all sport. There are many folks, presumably Spurs followers at this stage, singing, nevertheless it’s a really faint background noise.
28 minutes: From the nook Spurs break, and work it swiftly to the sting of the house facet’s penalty space, however Becker does properly to slip in and cease Maddison operating onto it.
27 minutes: One other nook. Bischof’s shot from actually far out and actually huge is deflected behind, which was just about essentially the most he might hope to attain with it.
26 minutes: Hoffenheim win a nook. Bentancur heads it to the sting of the realm, the place a follow-up shot is deflected a few instances and finally ends up on the toes of Moerstedt, who falls over backwards and calls for a penalty. He doesn’t get one.
24 minutes: The ball positively did hit Bentancur’s hand, by the way in which, simply earlier than the second aim. He deflected it into himself with a knee, although, and it actually wasn’t in any respect premeditated, and even meditated.
GOAL! Hoffenheim 0-2 Tottenham (Son, 22 minutes)
A second! Maddison intercepts a Hoffenheim cross on midway, turns and sees Son operating into area. N’Soki can’t intercept the through-ball and some moments later Kaderabek can’t block the shot – however he can deflect it in a merciless, looping arc over his keeper!
21 minutes: The ball is performed in to Hlozek. Bentancur will get again to divert the ball away from him, and Hoffenheim suppose he intentionally used a hand. VAR has a fast look and might’t discover something amiss.
19 minutes: Son goes down on the left flank, rolls round in agony for about 0.7 seconds whereas he sees if the referee would purchase the concept he’d been truly fouled by Kaderabek, after which hops adroitly to his toes when he doesn’t.
16 minutes: Spurs, with out taking part in significantly fluently, are one up and will simply have had at the least one different. This time Son cuts infield from the left and works himself a good taking pictures likelihood, however can’t handle a good shot.
14 minutes: Probability for a second! Son passes to Porro, the centre-back N’Soki throws himself on the ball in an try to chop it out and is irrelevant when he fails, however given a free shot from the sting of the realm Porro drags it huge.
12 minutes: Richarlison’s low shot from 15 yards or so is firmly struck however straight at Baumann, who spills it down the center of his space and will get away with it.
10 minutes: Akpoguma will get booked for a fast tug of Maddison’s shirt after being turned in midfield.
9 minutes: Richarlison’s early cross runs to Son past the far submit, however from there Hoffenheim do properly to disclaim each him and Maddison an opportunity to shoot, and finally Bergvall overhits a cross out of play.
8 minutes: A barely half-hearted assault from the house facet ends with Hlozek taking pictures into the legs of Dragusin.
6 minutes: Nicely that’s exactly the enhance Spurs wanted. Hoffenheim have received one sport this season after falling behind. “Why do Hoffenheim have 10 subs whereas Spurs have solely seven?” asks John. “Is it as a result of Spurs solely have 18 match gamers?” Sure. And three of them are goalkeepers.
GOAL! Hoffenheim 0-1 Tottenham (Maddison, 4 minutes)
An early aim! Baumann, the Hoffenheim keeper, boots the ball downfield however straight to Davies. It’s labored proper to Porro and his lengthy cross catches the house defence nonetheless in gentle disarray after their keeper’s cross, and Maddison runs on to it, controls excellently, and finds the roof of the web!
3 minutes: The primary assault of any observe ends with Richarlison sending in a cross with the skin of his proper foot that’s fairly fairly however by no means more likely to discover a teammate.
1 min: Peeeep! Spurs get the sport going.
Proper then, all of the preambles have been ambled and there’s nothing however a fast group huddle between us and kick-off.
Out come the gamers! I’m making an attempt very arduous to discern a spring of their step, however they’re in all probability simply preserving their power.
Ange Postecoglou appears pretty chipper as he speaks to TNT Sports activities pre-match:
It’s an enormous sport for us. That’s what you’re keen on about Europe, they’re all the time massive video games. It’s primarily about staying calm, taking part in our soccer. We’ve achieved properly on this competitors and we’d like a win tonight to offer us an actual good likelihood of ending within the prime eight.”
“Tis a mite irritating to see the spurs lineup tbh,” writes Peter Crosby. “I perceive the argument to attempt to win this sport and keep away from additional video games however Son seems to be and Kulusevski should be exhausted! Relaxation them! Let’s get our younger weapons in there and provides them probabilities to shine. Construct em up! Operating these guys into the bottom is proving disastrous.” I’m unsure. I feel that given the accidents they’ve simply bought to maintain taking part in. I feel it’s no matter they’re doing in coaching or no matter they’ve achieved to offend the gods of health which can be proving disastrous.
Hoffenheim’s stadium, the Rhein-Neckar Enviornment, has a capability of 30,150, which is about 9.45 instances the inhabitants of Hoffenheim. That is equal to Watford, for instance, boasting a stadium that holds 967,000 folks, or Leeds increasing Elland Highway till it will probably match slightly below 7.8 million folks.
Glenn Hoddle picks out Adam Hlozek because the Hoffenheim participant to observe, partly as a result of “he’s bought a left foot and a proper foot”. And doubtless additionally as a result of he’s the membership’s joint top-scorer this season, has seemed like a star within the making for a number of years and continues to be solely 22.
I do know what you’re considering: is the Morten Krogh who’s refereeing this sport associated to the Morten Krogh who reached the quarter-finals within the epee on the 1972 Olympics and received 5 nationwide fencing championships in his native Norway? And maybe additionally to the Trine Krogh who competed within the pool on the similar Olympics, within the 200m and 400m medley? And, by extension, to her uncle, the Lars Krogh who received 15 Norwegian championship titles in freestyle swimming in addition to 14 in water polo earlier than turning into president of the Norwegian Swimming Affiliation?
And the reply is, in all probability not. He’s not even Norwegian.
The groups!
Workforce information is in, and listed below are the beginning line-ups:
Hoffenheim: Baumann, Kaderabek, Akpoguma, N’Soki, Jurasek, Stach, Becker, Hlozek, Bischof, Kramaric, Moerstedt. Subs: Luca Philipp, Hranac, Gendrey, Micheler, Kalambayi, Chaves, Mokwa, Behrens, Erlein, Tim Philipp, Djuric.
Tottenham Hotspur: Austin, Porro, Dragusin, Davies, Grey, Bergvall, Bentancur, Maddison, Kulusevski, Richarlison, Son. Subs: Forster, Whiteman, Lankshear, Moore, Ajayi, Olusesi, Hardy, Cassanova.
Referee: Morten Krogh (Denmark).
Hi there world!
At this second, when they’re wrecked by self-doubt and stink of the foul funk of failure, the footballing fates have handed Spurs the valuable reward of encouraging fixtures. Certain, they performed the primary of these, towards an Everton group that had scored one aim of their earlier six league video games, on Sunday and managed to make their opponents appear like the 1970 Brazil facet, concede three and lose, however they’ve an opportunity to make up for it (sort of) tonight, and one other towards Leicester this weekend. Their season can nonetheless come good (or, at the least, higher).
Hoffenheim, fifteenth within the Bundesliga, three factors above Sixteenth-placed Heidenheim and the specter of a relegation play-off, have misplaced six and received simply one in all their final 10 video games in all competitions, that solitary victory coming towards Seventeenth-placed Holstein Kiel on Saturday. “I play soccer as a result of I need to win, and whenever you don’t win for thus lengthy, it actually will get you down,” mentioned the defender Kevin Akpoguma. “Within the altering room after the sport, you can really feel {that a} weight had been lifted. After a win, every part is simply nicer. A win all the time energises you, that’s been noticeable previously few days too. However we are able to’t ease off now, we have to stick with it. It’s essential that all of us develop a starvation for it, in order that we now have this sense far more typically.”
Of their very own final 10 video games Spurs have received three and misplaced a mere 5. On type, that is no contest. And but. One downside is that Spurs have solely 13 first-team gamers to select from, with Pape Sarr added to the damage checklist after the Everton sport. This makes Ange Postecoglou’s job simpler, as a result of the group roughly picks itself, and in addition tougher, as a result of it’s extra more likely to be garbage and there may be much less he can do about it whether it is.
“The fact is we don’t have quite a lot of alternative,” the Australian growled. “We’ve no different choices, that’s the fundamental premise of it. We’ve in all probability bought 13 first-team gamers who’ve travelled. We don’t have many choices, aside from throwing untried children in there however I don’t need to try this to them. You actually need a robust squad of gamers and hold them wholesome to deal with taking part in in Europe should you do properly within the cup competitions like we now have, as a result of it’s not manageable whenever you’ve bought three video games every week for the size of time we now have.”
So right here we’re. Two determined groups. One sport. Tottenham, in ninth place and out of doors the automated progress spots solely on aim distinction, will transfer into the highest eight in the event that they win and get to really feel first rate for a bit. Hoffenheim, in twenty seventh, absolutely must win at the least one and lose neither of their final two Europa League fixtures if they’re to have any hope even of a playoff place. It’s, in its barely depressing means, an enormous, probably season-shaping sport. Welcome!
![[2024] MSI Aegis R2 C14NUF9-829US (Intel Core i9-14900F, 128GB DDR5 RAM, 2X 2TB NVMe SSD, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super, Windows 11) Gaming Desktop PC](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81i1KVslX4L._AC_SL1500_.jpg)
