d1. FC Heidenheim is gaining more and more respect in the Bundesliga and is already unbeaten in six games. Veteran coach Frank Schmidt's team earned a deserved 1-1 (1-1) draw against TSG 1899 Hoffenheim on Saturday. Eren Dinkci scored the newly promoted team's first goal with a great goal (minute 29). Andrei Kramaric He tied with a penalty in hand in front of 20,120 spectators in Sinsheim (45th + 7), the outsider did not allow anything else.
Ostalb's players are tenth in the standings and already have 23 points after 19 rounds and are only two behind the European Cup contenders. Hoffenheim, which has only won one of the last ten games. Coach Pellegrino Matarazzo's team still has no sense of success this year after defeats against FC Bayern and Freiburg and an often unimaginative performance at home against Heidenheim.
For Heidenheimers, who are very far from the relegation zone, it was the third draw in 2024. In the Baden-Württemberg duel between the club from a town with 3,300 inhabitants and the club from a small town with 48,800 inhabitants, the team local initially clearly dominated. the midfielders Grisha Promel, Anton Stach and Andrej Kramaric were always looking for top scorer Maximilian Beier. After less than three minutes, the U21 player sent the ball high into the stands from a promising position.
double chance
When Wout Weghorst had a double chance, the visitors were lucky that Patrick Mainka first got a foot in and then the ball ended up in the hands of goalkeeper Kevin Müller. At Hoffenheim, Czech newcomer David Jurasek simply sat on the bench. The 23-year-old left back arrived on loan from Benfica during the week.
After a quarter of an hour, the Heidenheims became more animated and fired their first dangerous shot through Dinkci. However, FCH's top scorer Jan-Niklas Beste, with five goals and nine assists so far, usually had a tough time against his point guard Pavel Kaderabek. Dinkci played in the foreground: After Beier lost the ball, the Werder Bremen loanee very elegantly let out two Hoffenheim players, ran behind a wall with Jan Schöppner and pushed the ball past TSG goalkeeper Oliver Baumann. to score 1 -0 a.
Video evidence in first-half stoppage time brought the shaky TSG back into the game. Benedikt Gimber, former Hoffenheim player, was precisely the one who played the ball with his elbow; Kramaric did not miss the opportunity to equalize from the point.
After the change, Heidenheim had goalkeeper Müller to thank for not immediately falling behind. The 32-year-old first saved from Florian Grillitsch and a few minutes later with a fantastic save from Beier. In vain Hoffenheim pressed with pranksters like Ihlas Bebou to get the first goal: there was always some Heidenheimer leg in the way.