Jonas Hofmann and Lars Stindl led Borussia Mönchengladbach to their first away win of the Bundesliga season. The 30-year-old Hofmann scored the first two goals (12th and 37th minute) on Stindl’s assist in the 4-1 (2-0) win at the crisis club TSG 1899 Hoffenheim on Saturday. The captain then made it 3-1 (83′) before Joker Hannes Wolf added more (90′). In front of 24,119 spectators in Sinsheim, coach Daniel Farke’s team also celebrated their first treble this year and can thus look up the table again.
Meanwhile, the Kraichgauers, for whom only Ihlas Bebou (80th) scored, have to be prepared for a relegation battle: Head coach André Breitenreiter’s team seemed helpless and harmless for a long time in the eighth game in a row without a win. The Hoffenheimers hardly know what a victory in the league feels like: There has only been one in the past twelve games – at bottom Schalke in October. So Breitenreiter gets more and more in need of explanation.
The Gladbachers recorded their last away win to date on April 9, 2022 at the Greuther Fürth game association (2-0). The lively guests went into the first game of the second half of the season with Christoph Kramer, although the 2014 world champion had been substituted during the midweek defeat in Augsburg after a serious head hit.
Diagonal ball finds Hofmann
New signing and former Wolfsburg player John Brooks (most recently Benfica Lisbon) was in the starting lineup for Hoffenheim two days after his commitment – on his 30th birthday. Hoffenheim initially seemed confident on the ball, but were punished for the first inattention: A wonderful diagonal ball from captain Stindl, who was back in the team after his yellow card suspension, found Hofmann and the duped goalkeeper Oliver Baumann with a shot into the right corner. Immediately after the kick-off, Christoph Baumgartner almost equalized, but Ko Itakura cleared from the goal line.
At 1.93 metres, Brooks stood out as a defensive leader with strong headers at TSG. But Hofmann repeatedly eluded his guards. At the other end, Kasper Dolberg found it extremely difficult as an attacking striker: the Danish World Cup striker was in the starting XI for the first time, but had to leave at half-time.
Another counterattack by Gladbach put Hoffenheim further behind. Stindl got the ball again, before Brooks unluckily shot a team-mate, again Hofmann aimed right into the right corner. Linesman Thomas Stein initially had the flag up for offside, but when video assistant Benjamin Cortus intervened, referee Benjamin Brand ruled the goal valid. Hofmann returned to the team after recovering from a cold.
The Hoffenheim team did not achieve anything countable in the second round for a long time. Christoph Baumgartner headed to the post, but then substitute Bebou reduced the lead to 1:2 from close range. But TSG’s rebellion came too late, Stindl and Wolf scored for the clearly superior Borussia.
