After coming on as a second half substitute, Robert Lewandowski scored the game winning goal in the 90th minute of the match, sealing the victory for Bayern Muinch over an unlucky Hoffenheim team at the Wirsol Rhein-Neckar-Arena on Saturday evening.
Hoffenheim has not faired well at all against the German champions in recent years, not having won at all in recent memories. They fought hard throughout the entire ninety minutes, even taking an early lead. That was all for nought though as Hoffenheim have failed to register a single point to start the new campaign.
Defensive laspses result in goals
David Alaba gifted Hoffenheim a goal within the first sixty seconds of the game. His poor backpass fell straight to Kevin Volland who made absolutely no mistake and fired the ball past Manuel Neuer to open the scoring. This would get the Bundesliga champions get all out of sorts, in the opening ten minutes of the match, and could not really find their groove going forward.
But for all their disjointedness, they still controlled the match, keeping the ball in their half of the pitch, seemingly the whole half. With 13 minutes gone Douglas Costa had a go from a tight angle that hit the side netting. Then four minutes later, Thomas Müller did some great work down near the edge of the penalty area, his cross though just missed finding a teammate which would have . He was involved in the attack again, in the 33rd minute, this time though, his header pushed over the top of the frame by Oilver Baumann.
With less than five minutes to go until halftime, Bayern Munich would get the equalizing goal they had been after. David Alaba stormed down the left flank and made his way into the box. His shot was saved by Baumann, but he pushed it right to the path of Thomas Müller who touched the ball into the back of the empty net.
HT: Hoffenheim 1-1 Bayern Munich
Hoffenheim restarted quickly, in the 48th minute, following a corner and Steven Zuber found the ball in a bit of space in between the Bayern Munich central defenders. The first touch let him down, unfortunately, and the visitors were able to clear the danger away from the penalty area. Mario Götze was finally involved in an attack four minutes into the second half, and made a great individual run by weaving past a few defenders. His cross, intended for Müller, missed, and was eventually picked up by Douglas Costa whose shot was nowhere near the goal.
Bayern Munich nearly found a second goal shortly after the hour mark in what would have been nearly a carbon-copy goal of the first. David Alaba once again marched down that left flank, as he did so often in the match, shot the ball that was saved by Baumann. The rebound nearly fell perfectly to Thiao Alcantara who would have had the whole goal to shoot at should he had controlled the ball.
Bayern reduced to ten men
Jérôme Boateng was sent off 73rd minute after picking up his first yellow card just two minutes prior. A free kick from Hoffenheim slammed off the arm of the German defender and the ref gave him his marching order immediately. Eugen Polanski stepped up to take the penalty kick and his effort was not the greatest and his shot slammed off the right post which Alaba kicked way into the stands.
Robert Lewandowski, who came into the match in the 67th minute, scored right at the end of extra time to give his side all three points. Douglas Costa fought with Polanski down the right side to maintain possession of the ball, his pass back towards the middle of the penalty area was dumbied by Mario Götze was finished off by the Polish international.
The host will have felt hard done by the result after they fought very hard on the defensive side of the ball to only give away what would have been their first point of the season. Nevertheless, there is still a lot of matches left and they should still finish comfortably in the middle of the table.