Hoffenheim held off a late Schalke push to win 2–1 on Sunday, 8 November, in the final match of Bundesliga Matchday 9. Fisnik Asllani and Tim Lemperle scored in the first half and Junior Adamu replied in the 81st minute. The win lifted Hoffenheim to ninth, according to the Bundesliga match centre.
Asllani put the hosts ahead in the tenth minute by closing down Loris Karius. The goalkeeper’s attempted clearance struck the forward and looped into the net. Asllani then played a return pass to Lemperle, who finished low inside the area in the 26th minute, Schalke’s match report records.
Robin Gosens and Soufiane El-Faouzi started after missing two competitive games, but Schalke lost Gosens and Karius in a collision early in the second half. Vitalie Becker and Kevin Müller replaced them. Schalke kept looking for a way back, while a Hoffenheim goal was ruled out after Andrej Kramarić was caught offside in the build-up.
Adamu converted the rebound from Edin Džeko’s header after Oliver Baumann saved the initial effort at a corner. Junior Dina Ebimbe headed over in the 90th minute with a chance to equalise, and Müller denied Alexander Prass in added time to keep the deficit at one, according to Schalke’s account.
Archival cover photograph: Hoffenheim stadium in Sinsheim in 2019; not from the current event. Photographer/creator: Simon Hofmann. Image source and metadata; CC BY-SA 4.0. Image date as recorded by source: 2019-01-11 18:04:29. Source file used without raster edits.
