Despite a 4-0 defeat to new Bundesliga kings Bayern Munich at the PreZero Arena, TSG Hoffenheim dodged the relegation play-off and retained their top-flight status thanks to events elsewhere. The champions, meanwhile, closed a dominant 2024/25 season in style, with 82 points following a sixth straight unbeaten Bundesliga outing.
Hosting Bayern on the final day for a second year running, Hoffenheim went into this with a three-point lead and a +6 goal difference advantage over 16th-placed Heidenheim.
Memories of their 5-0 thumping in the reverse fixture may have planted microscopic seeds of doubt though, and Bayern – despite already being champions – were in control from the outset. Konrad Laimer and Serge Gnabry saw long-range efforts whistle past the left post.
Though Hoffenheim at least avoided adding to their league-worst tally of 28 goals conceded in the opening half-hour, it always seemed a question of when their resistance would break.
The answer to that turned out to be the 33rd minute, when Michael Olise silenced the Kraichgauer faithful with a sublime dipping freekick into the bottom right corner in the 33rd minute, netting his 12th goal this league term.
Trailing first for the fifth consecutive outing, the hosts faced their toughest task yet, overturning a deficit against the visitors’ iron-clad defence – as they did in last season’s corresponding clash.
The second-half sparked to life when Andrej Kramarić threatened to draw level with a stinging effort, but Joshua Kimmich soon delivered the sucker punch.
Pouncing on Olise’s cross from the right, his shot deflected cruelly off Leo Østigård into the near post to make it 2-0 – echoing that part of last season’s dramatic encounter, where Hoffenheim scripted an iconic 4-2 comeback.
However, by the look of things, Christian Ilzer’s men were only poised to concede more.
Moments after Harry Kane struck the woodwork, Gnabry put the match to bed with a brilliant left-footed shot from the edge of the area with 10 minutes left.
Gearing up for the summer’s FIFA Club World Cup in fine style, Kane then added a cherry on top – Die Roten’s 99th Bundesliga goal this term – with a fourth, a point-blank shot into the top corner, ensuring that Thomas Müller’s Bayern finale would be memorable for all the right reasons, while pushing Hoffenheim to end their second-worst top-flight campaign with a fifth straight winless game.
It was a drab end for the hosts, but an inconsequential one, with Heidenheim instead confined to the limbo of a playoff with the 2. Bundesliga’s bronze medallists, after their defeat to Werder Bremen.
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Flashscore Man of the Match: Michael Olise (Bayern Munich)