German football rising star Hertha Berlin on Friday edged autumn champion 1899 Hoffenheim 1-0.
With this narrow victory, Hertha climed up to the second position in Bundesliga, just two points shy of Bundesliga leaders Wolfsburg, while, Hoffenheim, on the contrary, got their 11th winless game.
Hoffenheim started pressing hard. Around twenty minutes after kick-off, Hoffenheim looked exhausted, meanwhile Hertha BSC played under level. Only at the 41st minute, Hertha's striker Marko Pantelic provided midfielder Patrick Ebert with a pass, the latter scored the decisive goal for the guests.
The 22 year-old fired the ball into the short corner from the right side of the box.
The second half started again with a turn on the style by Hoffenheim. They played aggressively with excellent ball combination but they didn't manage to score.
Almost ten minutes before the end of the match, Hoffenheim head coach Ralf Rangnick sent his fifth striker to the pitch in hope of levelling the points in their home arena. Unfortunately, however, even Hoffenheim's 15 corners didn't bring them a goal.
"This is an important win for us. It gives us a boost for the last five matches," said Hertha coach Dieter Hoeness, who wasn't completely satisfied with his side's performance: "In the second half we played under constant pressure. We did too little in the form of attacking," he added.
Hoffenheim captain Selim Teber saw things in a similar light.
"Its just unbelievable. We're playing against one of the Bundesliga's best sides, put them under pressure and Berlin gets near the goal once and they score," he said.
Source: Xinhua
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