Comfortable friendly victory in Walldorf

The ball is back rolling again: On Saturday, TSG Hoffenheim played their first pre-season friendly match in ahead of the 2024/25 season. TSG ran out 7-1 (2-0) winners at FC-Astoria Walldorf. Coach Pellegrino Matarazzo's team secured victory thanks to goals by Muhammad Damar (4), Max Moerstedt (21), Julian Justvan (58), Florian Micheler (63), Marius Bülter (pen., 66) and a brace from Fisnik Asllani (71 and 80).

TSG lived up to their billing as favourites in the game with the Regionalliga side from the very first minute and were able to celebrate the first goal of the season after around 200 seconds: Pavel Kadeřábek did brilliantly down the right-hand side and then got his head up to pick out Muhammad Damar in space, who fired his shot just under the bar.

Yet Walldorf also looked dangerous: in the ninth minute, Jannis Boziaris hit the bar with a free-kick from around 25 metres out. Ten minutes later, TSG had a big chance to double their lead, but Tom Bischof was denied from the penalty spot by Jerik von der Felsen in the 19th minute. Shortly thereafter, TSG did go on to extend their lead, with Max Moerstedt finding the bottom-left corner on 21 minutes. Kadeřábek was again the provider. After that, Hoffenheim created a few more opportunities, but it remained 2-0 as the sides went into the half-time break.

In the second half, coach Pellegrino Matarazzo almost completely changed his team, with only Damar and Luca Erlein continuing to play. After about ten minutes, Paul Hennrich missed the first good opportunity in the second half, firing over the bar in the 55th minute. Shortly afterwards, Julian Justvan took advantage of some confusion in the Walldorf defence during a free-kick and shot the ball directly into the empty net on 58 minutes.

Subsequently, TSG really extended their lead thanks to a concentrated performance. First Micheler was assisted by Damar in the 63rd minute, before Damar won a penalty five minutes later, which Marius Bülter confidently converted to make it 5-0 with 68 minutes on the referee’s watch. In the 71st minute, Fisnik Asllani made it 6-0 after some delightful build-up play. The highlight of the day was once again provided by Asllani: the striker struck a wonderful overhead kick to make it 7-0 in the 80th minute. Shortly before the final whistle, FC-Astoria Walldorf scored a consolation goal, Bekem Can Bicki stepping up to score from the penalty spot in the 83rd minute for what would be the final score of 7-1 to Hoffenheim.

"Our performance was decent. In the first half, we didn't score as many goals, but had a good structure. The bottom line was a successful performance. The atmosphere was great.  The lads are held in high esteem in the region," said Pellegrino Matarazzo after the match. On July 24, TSG will play their next public friendly, when second division club SV Elversberg will be the guests in Zuzenhausen.

First half line-up: Philipp – Erlein, Stach, Akpoguma – Kadeřábek, Prömel, Tohumcu, Behrens – Damar, Bischof – Moerstedt

Second half line-up: Petersson – Strobl, Drexler, Erlein (Behrens, 69) – Justvan, Geiger, Micheler, Bülter – Damar (Bischof, 69), Hennrich – Asllani

Goals: 0-1 Damar (4), 0-2 Moerstedt (21), 0-3 Justvan (58), 0-4 Micheler (63), 0-5 Bülter (pen., 68), 0-6 Asllani (71), 0-7 Asllani (80), 1-7 Can Bicki (pen., 83(

Match facts and statistics »