TSG come from behind to beat Regensburg

There was an early setback for TSG Hoffenheim in their friendly fixture with SSV Jahn Regensburg, who opened the scoring inside two minutes. The 2. Bundesliga club intercepted a wayward pass and countered at lightning pace, before setting up Marco Grüttner for a simple tap-in from just several metres out (2).

The game was 16 minutes old when TSG had their first shot at the opposition goal. Adam Szalai latched onto a lovely pass but was denied by Meyer, before Pavel Kaderabek's follow-up effort was cleared off the goal-line. Kevin Vogt had to be substituted off with an injury six minutes later and Ilay Elmkies entered the fray in his stead (22).

Grüttner doubled the advantage for Regensburg, who kick off their 2. Bundesliga campaign next weekend, when he fired home a free-kick at the beginning of the second quarter (34). At the other end, Hoffenheim spurned a number of chances – and it was not until the 51st minute that Alfred Schreuder's team found the net, with Benjamin Hübner converting a low cross from Steven Zuber from 11 metres out to halve the deficit.

Debut goal for Stafylidis

With the score 2-1 to Regensburg at the break, Alfred Schreuder sent an entirely different team out for the third quarter and this time it was Hoffenheim who struck early. Unfortunately, however, Vincenzo Grifo's 65th-minute goal was disallowed for offside. But that chance was followed by further opportunities to equalise, and Kevin Akpoguma eventually made it 2-2 on the 90-minute mark.

The comeback was completed in the 105th minute when Konstantinos Stafylidis volleyed home his first TSG Hoffenheim goal and put his team ahead for the first time. "It's fun at the moment and I'm happy to be playing again after my injury," said Kevin Akpoguma after the game. "We had a few problems at the start, but we were better in the second half and created a lot of opportunities to score. We saw some good stuff," said a satisfied Alfred Schreuder after the full-time whistle. 

TSG Hoffenheim will head to their training camp in Windischgarsten on Thursday. There they will play back-to-back friendlies against Verona and Trabzonspor on 25 July.

TSG Hoffenheim first half line-up: Baumann – Posch, Vogt (Elmkies, 23), Hübner – Kaderabek, Rupp, Grillitsch, Zuber – Adamyan, Szalai, Bittencourt

TSG Hoffenheim second half line-up: Pentke – Akpoguma, Bicakcic, Hoogma – Brenet, Baumgartner (Ribeiro, 91), Nordtveit, Stafylidis – Grifo, Bebou, Ochs (Zulj, 91)

Jahn Regensburg first half line-up: Meyer, Volkmer, Besuschkow, George, Grüttner, Hein, Schneider, Stolze, Nachreiner, Baack, Okoroji

Jahn Regensburg second half line-up: Weis (Weidinger, 91), Nandzik, Volkmer (Herzig, 79), Saller, Geipl, Derstroff, Heister (Özlokman, 112), Palionis, Lais, Herzig, Medinelli (Stowasser, 103)

Goals: 0-1 Grüttner (2), 0-2 Grüttner (34), 1-2 Hübner (51), 2-2 Akpoguma (90), 3-2 Stafylidis (105)

Match facts and statistics »