Goals have been all but guaranteed in fixtures between Bayern and Hoffenheim down the years, with an average of 3.5 scored per game. The pair meet for the 33rd time in the Bundesliga on Wednesday. Can fans look forward to another spectacle? fcbayern.com looks back on the six highest-scoring encounters to date.
10 March 2012: Gomez & Co. make light work
Hoffenheim discovered first hand on this Saturday afternoon just how ruthlessly Bayern can punish holes in opposition defences. The game wasn’t even an hour old and the visitors from Sinsheim had already been breached seven times. Captained by goalkeeper Tim Starke before his move to Munich, Hoffenheim were unable to gain any sort of foothold in the first 45 minutes. Mario Gomez’s hat-trick alone would’ve been enough for three points at the Allianz Arena.
Yet Arjen Robben also got in on the act with a brace, plus further strikes from Toni Kroos and Franck Ribery. An own goal late on from Luiz Gustavo putting an attempted clearance past Manuel Neuer was little more than a footnote to an encounter that Bayern dominated from start to finish and won 7-1.
29 March 2014: Bold Hoffenheim end Bayern’s winning run
The Hoffenheim team of 2014 put up a much better showing when they visited the Allianz Arena two years later. Coach Markus Gisdol opted for a brave approach against a Bayern side on a run of 19 straight wins. Their aggressive pressing and high line caused Pep Guardiola’s side numerous issues. Anthony Modeste put the visitors ahead midway through the first half, but Bayern hit back with three of their own in a devastating nine-minute spell after the half-hour mark.
Claudio Pizarro got two of those, either side of a Xherdan Shaqiri strike teed up by the Peruvian striker, but then Sejad Salihovic put away a free-kick on the stroke of half-time to get his side back into the game. Things calmed after the restart, yet Hoffenheim continued to work hard and eventually got their reward when Roberto Firmino made it 3-3 in the 75th minute. It was the culmination of a thrilling encounter no doubt enjoyed more by the crowd than the two coaches.
27 January 2018: Bayern hit back
Bayern boasted five former Hoffenheim players in their team as they welcomed TSG on Matchday 20 of the 2017/18 season. David Alaba, Niklas Süle and Sebastian Rudy started the game, with Sandro Wagner and Starke also on the bench. On the other side, Julian Nagelsmann started FCB loanee Serge Gnabry for the visitors. And the then 22-year-old combined with strike partner Mark Uth to leave Bayern stunned and 2-0 down inside 12 minutes. “I thought if things kept going like that then we’d be swept aside in our own stadium,” Süle said after the game of his new team’s poor start.
However, the experienced Thomas Müller remained confident: “It all happened quickly. Suddenly we were 2-0 down. But you saw that we stayed at it. We wanted to hit back.” And that’s just what the champions did. Robert Lewandowski and Jerome Boateng levelled things midway through the first half, before Kingsley Coman, Arturo Vidal and Wagner put things right with three more goals in the second for a 5-2 win. Coach Jupp Heynckes put the comeback down to the support of the fans: “Our crowd got us going after being 2-0 down and kept believing in my team. That’s by no means a given.”
5 February 2020: Late cup drama
The only DFB Cup encounter to date with Hoffenheim ended in progress for Bayern, but it turned out to be a nervy finish after what looked like being a routine display. Hansi Flick’s side looked comfortable at 4-1 up with 82 minutes gone. The game had started with a couple of own goals, first from Boateng and then from Benjamin Hübner inside the first 15 minutes. Müller and a Lewandowski brace then seemed to have settled things, only for a late Munas Dabbur double to leave fans on the edge of their seat.
“We let things slip in the final 20-30 minutes and were punished,” Neuer said afterwards. Alaba echoed the thoughts of his captain: “We stopped playing in the second half, and Hoffenheim had the quality to make things exciting again.” Fortunately, it was too late for the visitors at the Allianz Arena as Bayern advanced to the quarter-finals. As Flick ultimately put it: “All that matters in the cup is you go through.”
29 February 2020: Bayern race out the blocks
Just 24 days later, the two sides met again in the Bundesliga, this time in Sinsheim and this time with a far more composed and prolific performance by Bayern. Philippe Coutinho led the attack with a couple of goals either side of half-time, but the contest was all but over inside the first 15 minutes after goals from Gnabry, Joshua Kimmich and Joshua Zirkzee. Things were very much the same after the break when Leon Goretzka followed Coutinho onto the scoreboard after an hour to give fans of this fixture yet another half-dozen goals to enjoy.
18 May 2024: Two-goal lead not enough
The one high-scoring encounter where Bayern ended up on the wrong side of the result came on the final day of the 2023/24 season. And the Bavarians actually made the perfect start, going 2-0 up inside six minutes through Mathys Tel and Alphonso Davies. Maximilian Beier quickly got one back for the hosts in Sinsheim, but the game finally calmed after that.
“We started really well but then produced a number of individual mistakes and couldn’t dominate the game as much,” said Thomas Tuchel after the game. Hoffenheim found their feet better in the second half and levelled after the hour through Andrej Kramaric, who then settled the game single-handedly in the closing minutes as he completed his hat-trick and ensured that Bayern wouldn’t even finish as runners-up that season. Giving his usual honest assessment, Müller said afterwards: “We weren’t good enough over the 90 minutes. We gave away more and more of the play as the game wore on.”
Attentions turned to Hoffenheim on Monday, with Jamal Musiala back training:
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