Ihlas Bebou seemed to single-handedly shoot TSG Hoffenheim to victory against Darmstadt 98. But the lilies had a lot of courage – and Tim Skarke. The Lilies fought their way to a 3:3 (2:1) draw in Sinsheim on Tuesday evening (December 19, 2023).
Hoffenheim took the lead after Klaus Gjasula caught Hoffenheim’s Ihlas Bebou off his feet in the penalty area and Andrej Kramaric scored with a cool penalty shot (13th). Ten minutes later, Luca Pfeiffer equalized with his first first division goal, and a little later Bebou rounded 98 goalkeeper Marcel Schuhen again and put Hoffenheim back in front (28th). Darmstadt didn’t let up and scored another equalizer through Tim Skarke (57th).
Bebou crowned his excellent performance that evening with his second goal (66th), but Skarke was clearly on a par with the Hoffenheim player in terms of gala, who also scored his second goal in the final phase (85th).
Darmstadt fought hard to win a point, but it didn’t lead to them leaving the bottom of the table. Lieberknecht’s team has been waiting for a win for nine games now. Coach Pellegrino Matarazzo’s team improved to sixth place in the table, at least until Wednesday.
Lilies very different from a designated relegator
Despite all the injury concerns that are currently plaguing SV 98, the bottom team from Darmstadt went into the game with momentum and self-confidence. With Fabian Holland, Fraser Hornby, Braydon Manu, Marvin Mehlem, Fabian Nürnberger, Aaron Seydel, Oscar Vilhelmsson and Christoph Zimmermann, eight professionals were missing. Torsten Lieberknecht’s team actually had more possession of the ball, but Hoffenheim acted cleverly and relied on transition moments.
And that’s how it turned out: After a quickly executed free kick, Bebou stormed past Schuh, even tunneled through the keeper and was then hit by the rushing Gjasula in the visitors’ 16. Clearly, both for referee Wrank Willenborg and Kramaric.
Pfeiffer is finally celebrating in the Bundesliga
After numerous goals in the 2nd Bundesliga, Pfeiffer scored his first goal in the top flight: on a pass from Bartol Franjić from the left, he kept his slip clean and poked past Oliver Baumann into the goal to equalize. A little later, however, Hoffenheim’s transition moments, part 2: Again Bebou stormed up on his shoes, wobbled the keeper again and put the ball in to make it 2-1.
After the break the drama was repeated: Tim Skarke made it a draw again before Bebou pushed the ball over the line for the second time.
The guests never gave up in the final phase. Ozan Kabak had an early Christmas present for the guests: a cross pass in his own half landed at Pfeiffer, who fed Skarke. His right-footed shot hit the near corner flat and unstoppable.
Bavaria – Hoffenheim, Darmstadt – BVB
Both teams have two really big challenges to tackle on the coming matchday: 1899 Hoffenheim opens the 17th matchday on January 12th (8:30 p.m.) at Bayern Munich, Darmstadt faces Borussia Dortmund the next day in an exposed game time (1/13/24, 6:30 p.m.) .