Lübeck – Hoffenheim

DFB Pokal Round 1
Lubeck, August 14, 18:00 CET

The big difference in the individual quality of the players is what makes Hoffenheim clear favorites in a match away to Lubeck, a team from the third division, at the start of the DFB Pokal, Germany's national cup.
Behind Hoffenheim is a good second half of the previous season. The team led by new coach Pellegrino Matarazzo played quality attacking football and managed to get out of the survival zone, to get a safe place in the middle of the elite Bundesliga table and 12th position.
"Der Blau" showed during the preparatory period that they once again intend to play matches in a way that both they and the opponents easily get chances to score a goal. In the last five games played by Hoffenheim, goals were scored by both teams, in each of them. The team from the Bundesliga played exceptional duels against the Scottish Rangers (2:2) and the Dutch Feyenoord (4:2 victory), but in the last friendly match they were defeated away to very good Premier League squad Fulham 2:1. Overall, the Hoffenheim team showed great attacking potential this summer.
In the previous season, Lubeck won a return to the third division, and that in a dramatic finish in stoppage time of the last match of the Regionalliga Nord. The impression is that the ambition of this team is above all to keep their place in the third tier of the competition in Germany. In the last week, Lubeck managed to draw a draw against favorites Sandhausen (0:0) at home.
It is obvious that the Lubeck team has problems in the game in attack, in the last six official matches this team has scored a goal only five times. One gets the impression, that Lubeck will not be able to rely so much on a solid defense against such quality elite German teams as Hoffenheim. If the guests manage to score a goal in the first half, the home team may be threatened with a result debacle.
Interestingly, these opponents have already played once in the DFB Pokal – back in the 2003/04 season, 19 years ago. Then, in the quarter-final match, Lubeck was better (1:0). However, the clubs had a completely different profile than they do now: Hoffenheim played in the third division then, and Lubeck was a member of the 2nd Bundesliga.
In the previous three years, Hoffenheim had great problems to pass the first round of the national cup, which is traditionally the first official match of the season in Germany. With that experience, the visitors will want to leave a good impression away the team from the third league - and launch a successful campaign with a convincing victory.
American coach Matarazzo will not count on injured young midfielder Umut Tohumca (ankle injury), as well as forward Fisnik Asllani (medial collateral ligament injury). However, both are not standard first-team members - so the Hoffenheim team is counting on all healthy key players. And they will perform without calculations, in the variant of the standard first 11, because this is the last match before the start of the Bundesliga.
Lubeck coach Lukas Pfeiffer cannot count on five injured players and will try above all to avoid a convincing defeat... In reality, at least two Hoffenheim goals, and probably more, seem like a certain outcome.