It was an action-packed festival of football - and the perfect debut for Christian Ilzer. In the Austrian's first match in charge, on Matchday 11 of the Bundesliga on 23 November, football fans experienced the full emotional range of the sport. In the end, TSG claimed a thrilling 4-3 victory - but it didn't look like things would go their way for long stretches. The two teams traded blows right from the start. Willi Orban netted in the 15th minute to give the visitors a 1-0 lead. Adam Hložek equalised immediately (17), but Antonio Nusa put the away side back in front just two minutes later. There was barely time for the two teams to catch their breath.

The second half didn't take long to get going either. Tom Bischof equalised again (50) - before Leipzig went ahead once more through an own goal from Stanley Nsoki. However, a passionate TSG did not give up. They had to wait a long time, but the third equaliser of the game came in the 82nd minute through Hložek. The run of the game thus far would suggest it would be Leipzig who would score next, but TSG confounded expectations: Jacob Bruun Larsen netted in the 85th minute after an assist by Stach to secure a famous 4-3 win. 

It was an emotional and hugely important win for Ilzer and the Hoffenheim fans - and a deserved one, as former TSG player Christoph Baumgartner admitted: "We knew that Hoffenheim would bring a lot of intensity after the change of coach. We weren't at the level we wanted to be for long stretches. If you take the lead three times, you can't leave the pitch as losers in the end. The defeat hurts a lot. Every single one of our players must now look at themselves and ask what they could have done better."

The two teams will face each other again on Saturday (15:30 CEST/liveticker on tsg-hoffenheim.de). And once again it will be a tight battle, with RB needing the points just as much as TSG. There is another parallel to the first leg: the home side will be playing with their new coach for the first time in the Bundesliga. Former TSG player Zsolt Löw, who played for Hoffenheim from 2006 to 2008, has taken over as head coach on an interim basis in place of Marco Rose. The Hungarian has already worked as an assistant under Ralph Hasenhüttl, Ralf Rangnick and Thomas Tuchel and is looking forward to the task of trying to lead the current sixth-placed team into the Champions League again.

His debut as the Leipzig head coach was unsuccessful, as they lost 3-1 away to VfB Stuttgart in the semi-finals of the DFB-Pokal, putting an end to any hopes of winning a trophy this season. "The disappointment is huge. The stats show we were better in many areas. It's a bitter blow, we wanted to reach the final. If anyone expected me to perform miracles and get us into the cup final straight away - no coach in the world can make up big differences that quickly. We were the better team to some extent, but unfortunately it came down to efficiency. Now we're out of the cup and it's all about the Bundesliga. We don't have much time, we'll get home at two in the morning. Then we have to regenerate, regenerate, regenerate," said Löw after the defeat.

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