Hoffenheim vs. Bochum preview: Both sides aiming for first league win of the season
After both teams lost their opening games of the Bundesliga season, Hoffenheim and Bochum will face off on Sunday with both teams hoping they can emerge victorious for the first time in this campaign.
Hoffenheim
Hoffenheim are two games into the tenure of Andre Breitenreiter's tenure, and the new boss is still waiting for a win within 90 minutes.
They required extra-time goals from Ozan Kabak and Grischa Promel to beat Rodinghausen in the first-round of the DFB-Pokal before facing Borussia Mönchengladbach in their opening Bundesliga match.
Die Kraichgauer were reduced to ten men after Stefan Posch was sent off in the 19th minute, but they still managed to open the scoring through Robert Skov. However, they were pegged back by Rami Bensebaïni before half time, while Marcus Thuram and Nico Elvedi found the net to condemn Hoffenheim to a 3-1 defeat.
After failing to collect any points on the opening weekend of the Bundesliga season, the hosts will hope that their first home game of the season can bring about a positive result.
They will also be looking for an improvement at the PreZero Arena after failing to win any of their last five home Bundesliga games of the 2021-22 season, with a 2-1 defeat to Bochum included in that run. In fact, in each of their last two home matches, they conceded four goals.
Although, Hoffenheim can take confidence from the fact that they have scored in 14 of their previous 15 Bundesliga home games.
Team News
Posch will serve a one-match suspension, while Angelo Stiller, Benjamin Hübner and Ihlas Bebou are out with injury issues. After joining from RB Leipzig, Angelino could make his debut on Saturday.
Bochum
Like their hosts, Bochum are also looking for their first league win of the season after losing to Mainz 05 last weekend.
They managed to record a 3-0 away win against Viktoria Berlin in the first-round of the DFB-Pokal, but they were unable to avoid a home defeat to Mainz on the opening weekend of the Bundesliga season.
Kevin Stöger levelled for Hoffenheim after Karim Onisiwo opened the scoring, but the Mainz forward grabbed his second to wrap up a 2-1 victory.
Although they were unable to collect a positive result last weekend, Thomas Reis' side will be confident ahead of Sunday's contest after winning their previous three league meetings against Hoffenheim. They have also scored in six of their last seven Bundesliga away games.
Team News
Kostas Stafylidis is ruled out due to a muscle injury and he is joined on the sidelines by Jannes-Kilian Horn and Danilo Soares.