Anthony Modeste grabbed all three points for Hoffenheim at the death to inflict a defeat on Bayer Leverkusen who no have not won in nine games and find themselves clinging on to a Champions League spot.
Koen Casteels, Niklas Süle and Sven Schipplock were all left out Markus Gisdol whilst Sami Hyypiä made two changes to the defeat against Bayern Munich. Andrés Guardado and Ömer Toprak came in for Sebastian Boenisch and Philipp Wollscheid. Stefan Kießling started his 111th Bundesliga game in a row for Leverkusen, scoring eleven goals all season despite only scoring one goal in his previous seven games. Leverkusen faced Hoffenheim on the back of eight games without a win and slipped down to fourth in the Bundesliga. Hoffenheim travelled to the Bay Arena having just kept one clean sheet all season boasting the worst defence in the league while Leverkusen had the third best attack in the league behind FC Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund. Leverkusen have struggled to score lately and have only managed nine goals in their last ten league games whilst Hoffenheim have scored fourteen in their previous five despite winning only two of them. Hoffenheim haven’t beat Bayer Leverkusen in ten attempts.
The last time the two teams met it was Leverkusen who grabbed all three points after Stefan Kießling’s phantom goal after he headed the ball through the side netting.
The opening moments of the game had a stop start feel to it, after just twelve minutes there had been eight fouls but it was Hoffenheim who were perhaps the more dominant of the two teams and they were the first to create a real opportunity. A long ball by Jens Vestergaard was misjudged by Hilbert inside the box who appeared to have handled the ball. Salihović stepped up to take the penalty and chipped the ball neatly down the middle sending Bernd Leno the wrong way after 14 minutes.
Hoffenheim have been in control of the game since the goal even with just the one shot on goal. Top scorer Roberto Firmino nearly doubled Hoffenheim’s lead from twenty-five yards which went just over Leno’s bar. Kevin Volland had the chance to add to Hoffenheim’s lead when the young German headed just wide from the near post after being left unmarked after 36 minutes.
It was six minutes before half-time when Leverkusen had their first real opportunity in the game and they took it. Emir Spahic crossed from the left to find Kießling who made no mistake in heading the ball across Jens Grahl to score his 12thgoal of the season. Worryingly though for Leverkusen as just forty seconds later Hoffenheim’s Volland had the ball in the back of the net to give the away side the lead again. Cutting in from the right hand side, Volland unleashed a curler from just outside the box with his left foot which left Leno helpless to give Hoffenheim a 2-1 lead going in to half time.
Simon Rolfes equalised just eight minutes in to the second half after a shot from Guardado was parried to Lars Bender who found the Leverkusen skipper, turning on the ball firing in to the roof of the net from six-yards.
Toprak then had the chance to put the home side ahead for the first time in the game but his header produced a fine save from Grahl. The Turkish defender then had the ball in the back of the net after 67 minutes which was ruled out for offside. Substitute Eren Derdiyok nearly scored against his former club getting on the end of a corner, which perhaps he should have scored going in to the last 15 minutes of the game as both teams look to push on for a winner.
Tarik Elyounoussi nearly grabbed a late winner for Hoffenheim but was denied by Leno who did well to spread himself to block the Norwegian before Derdiyok nearly grabbed a late goal at the other end firing just wide of the post after getting on the end of Guardado’s cross.
In what was an end to end last three minutes Hoffenheim grabbed a winner in the 89th minute through Modeste who got on the end of Fabien Johnsons cross and made no mistake of finding the back of the net.
Leverkusen remains in fourth place six points behind Schalke while only two points ahead of Borussia Mönchengladbach. Hoffenheim are slowly climbing away from the relegation zone and find themselves in tenth on 32 points for the season, three points ahead of Hannover.