Off to Europe – the moment of the year

Sebastian Rudy chips the ball from the right side into the box to FC Köln player Osako, who slips whilst attempting to make a clearance. Niklas Süle turns quickly and dribbles into the box – not his biggest strength. The ball lands too far from his foot, but it turns into the perfect assist for Kerem Demirbay, who fires home calmly and cleverly with the inside of his left foot from 17 yards out. Demirbay sprints off towards the corner flag and the team follow him - Süle, Bicakcic, Rupp, Rudy, Baumann, Vogt, Zuber, Wagner, Uth and Nadiem Amiri, who leaps into the celebratory huddle like a jumping racehorse.

Thanks to the late equaliser, Hoffenheim had 55 points in the bank, while Bremen had only 42 in seventh place. 55 minus 42 is 13. With only four matchdays left, that meant one thing… Europe. Kerem Demirbay knew exactly how important his goal was and how huge the moment was. “We wrote history today, but we can write even more. We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, but it is possible. We’ll try to get the most out of each and every game and we’ll see where that gets us at the end.” Alexander Rosen spoke in the mixed zone about emotions that he will “always feel”. The director of first-team football, just like Kerem Demirbay, remained driven in the hour following the game: “There are still points to get, we need to focus fully on maximising our points total from the 55 we now have. We’ll keep our foot on the gas.”

Sebastian Rudy took the same line: “We’ve now definitely qualified for Europe, but we still want to win our remaining games this season.” Head coach Julian Nagelsmann agreed: “We’re delighted to have reached Europe, but we want to give all we’ve got, right up to the 34th and last matchday and achieve all that we can.” German television station n-tv said that “Demirbay has enhanced Hoffenheim’s super season.” TSG ended the season in fourth place, which entered the team into the Champions League playoffs. But that’s a story for another day...