Ilzer's Hoffenheim fall back down to earth with desolate showing in Portugal
| TSG defender Arthur Chaves exits the pitch dejected on Thursday night. | Octavio Passos, Getty Images |
Christian Ilzer's TSG 1899 Hoffenheim have followed up their dramatic 4-3 comeback win over Leipzig in the league with an empty, hollow, and flat defeat on the European stage. Ilzer's men were undone early by defensive errors in their trip to Portugal Thursday night. Though the German UEL representatives recovered somewhat from two early conceded goals, the attack never came remotely close to getting into gear in the latest defeat.
In just his second match in charge of the Sinsheimers, Ilzer went with five changes to the XI that lined up against Leipzig in the league on Saturday. Pavel Kaderabek, Stanley Nsoki, Alexander Prass, Marius Bülter, Haris Tabakovic made way for Mërgim Berisha, Kevin Akpoguma, David Jurasek, Jacob Bruun Larsen, and Valentin Gendrey.
Unfortunately for the German guests, matters got off to a disastrous start. A short pass from keeper Oliver Baumann in the direction of defender Arthur Chaves got poached by striker Bruma. The former RB Leipzig man happily accepted the gift and banged home an easy 1-0 in the 2nd. Six minutes after that, Bruma capitalized on a Andrej Kramaric mistake to double the advantage.
By the 8th minute, the ball was in the back of the Hoffenheim net again after Bruma and captain Ricardo Hoarta set up young Roger Fernandes' 2-0. Ilzer's Kraichgauer were able to pull themselves together defensively after the early shock, yet never really managed to threaten at the other end over the course of the first-half.
Ilzer trusted his starters in the second-half despite the flat performance in the first. This proved a mistake as the team continued to fail to find any real traction in the match. Braga continued to mount pressure until Vitor Cavalho scored a third goal that honestly could have been scored much earlier at 90+5. There was almost nothing from the TSG down the stretch.
