Chris Richards was back in action for Hoffenheim following the international break as they came away with a comfortable win over FC Cologne as the Bundesliga returned to action over the weekend.
Hoffenheim 5-0 FC Cologne
Hoffenheim was hitting on all cylinders as they put away five goals to ease their way to victory over FC Cologne at the PreZero Arena.
Chris Richards, who started on the bench, entered the game after 36 minutes, completing 75 percent of his passes and winning four aerial battles.
Ihlas Bebou opened the scoring just after the half-hour mark for the host when Andrej Kramaric played a through ball to the Togolese international and he slotted it home with ease. He followed that up with a second strike just minutes into the second half with a backheel from point-blank range.
Christoph Baumgartner extended the host’s lead in the 51st minute with a tap-in from close-range with the assist coming from David Raum.
Cologne was getting carved up and Hoffenheim did not show any mercy as they scored another in the 74th minute through Dennis Geiger.
Stefan Posch rounded out the scoring in the 87th minute as Hoffenheim showed their class in this game from start to finish.
Hoffenheim has moved up to ninth place in the standings with 11 points.
Notes
In other Bundesliga action, John Brooks was back in action for Wolfsburg after an injury in their 2-0 loss to Union Berlin.
Jow Scally went the distance for Borussia Monchengladbach as they ended up sharing the points with Pellegrino Matarazzo’s Stuttgart in a 1-1 draw.
Timothy Tillman played 72 minutes and Julian Green came off the bench for Greuther Furth in their 1-0 loss to Bochum to remain winless on the season.
In the 2. Bundesliga, Ryan Malone was an unused substitute for Hansa Rostock as their game with Sandhausen ended in a 1-1 draw.
Jalen Hawkins watched from the bench for Ingolstadt as they shared the points with Holstein Kiel following a 1-1 draw.
Down in the 3. Liga, Terrence Boyd was on the scoresheet for Hallescher FC but it was not enough as they fell in a narrow 3-2 loss to Saarbrucken.
Lennart Maloney scored a goal for Borussia Dortmund II as the fell to Eintracht Braunschweig in a 4-2 defeat.
Johan Gomez scored a goal as he helped Zwickau to a 3-2 win over Duisburg.
Kevin Lankford only played 39 minutes for Wehen Wiesbaden in their 1-0 loss to Turkgucu Munich.
Bryang Kayo played the final 12 minutes for Viktoria Berlin, while Andrew Wooten watched on for Osnabruck in a 2-1 win for the visitors.
Maximilian Dietz was a spectator on the bench for Freiburg II as they went down in a 3-0 loss to Kaiserslautern.
