Result: Koln 1-2 Hoffenheim
Date: 08 November 2019
Venue: RheinEnergieStadion
Hoffenheim extended their winning run in the Bundesliga to five matches following a 2-1 victory away to Koln on Friday evening.
With talisman Andrej Kramaric missing for Hoffenheim through injury, Jurgen Locadia was handed a start alongside Ihlas Bebou upfront, while captain Jonas Hector made his long awaited return to the Koln line-up.
Koln somehow took at shock lead with 16 minutes remaining of the first stanza after Jhon Cordoba let fly with a screamer from outside the box that dipped towards the bottom corner.
Alfred Schreuder's troops kept on piling the pressure on their hosts in the closing phase of the first stanza but Koln showed resilience at the back in the latter stages of the half.
Hoffenheim came out firing from the break as Sargis Adamyan eventually levelled matters three minutes inside the second stanza with a looping strike after being picked out by Sebastian Rudy.
Adamyan nearly provided the second goal for the visitors just after the hour-mark after threading a headed pass towards Locadia, who went clear inside the box but the Dutch forward struck his shot over the bar.
Schreuder was forced to make a change in the last 16 minutes after Bebou went down injured and he brought on Konstantinos Stafylidis in his place.
Hoffenheim were awarded a penalty deep in stoppage time with the help of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR), which allowed Locadia to step up to seal the winner for the visitors from the spot-kick that took the side up to second spot.
