Burger’s winner sees Hoffenheim sink Wolfsburg in five-goal thriller

VfL Wolfsburg and TSG Hoffenheim battled it out in a five-goal thriller to wrap up the action on Bundesliga Matchday 9.

An out-of-sorts VfL Wolfsburg welcomed TSG Hoffenheim to the Volkswagen Arena this afternoon to put a lid out the action on Matchday 9. The final result went the way of the Sinsheim club who ran out 3-2 winners to heap more pressure on VfL coach Paul Simonis.

Mohamed Amoura’s goal on 14 minutes proved to be the perfect tonic for Wolfsburg amid a dreary run of form. Svanberg fed the Algerian speedster on the left who rounded Oliver Baumann and finished emphatically to the roof of the net with some help from the bar.

Appeals for a penalty rang out when Wouter Burger appeared to obstruct Svanberg in the box, however arbiter Frank Willenborg waved away the appeals. Wolfsburg’s momentum seemed to take a bit of a knock thereafter as Hoffenheim started to push forward in waves. 

Hoffenheim equalised when their Czechia duo combined as Hranáč found Coufal with a long ball. The latter’s cross was met by the left boot of Burger guiding it into the bottom corner. Amoura’s bicycle-kick made for a final chance before the break which Baumann kept out. 

Five second-half minutes was all that Hoffenheim needed to take the lead. Substitute Andrej Kramarić delivered the perfect ball for Grisha Prömel to head home. Amazingly, Wolfsburg levelled on 56 minutes when Kumbedi fed Amoura to zip a low strike beyond the fingertips of Baumann.

The mood temporarily lifted in Lower Saxony before the visitors made it 3-2. Prömel turned provider on the hour feeding Burger. The Dutch midfielder required one touch before powering the ball into the corner to restore Christian Ilzer’s side’s slender advantage.

Both sides replenished their attacking third with Jonas Wind and Ihlas Bebou arrived off the bench. The Togolese marksman thought he sealed the win with his first touch, however VAR review cut short his celebrations. Seven minutes of injury time couldn’t lift Wolfsburg out of their slump under Simonis’ tutelage.