With concentrated offensive power, Eintracht Frankfurt has impressively underlined the current top form and awakened hopes for the title among the fans.
In the last Bundesliga home game of the very successful year, the Europa League winner celebrated a brilliant 4:2 (3:1) victory on Wednesday and moved up the table to a place in the Champions League.
Driven by the strong former world champion Mario Götze, Frankfurt got off to a dream start and led 2-0 early on thanks to two goals from Djibril Sow (6th) and Randal Kolo Muani (8th).
After Eric Junior Dina Ebimbe (29th) made it 3-0, the fans in Deutsche Bank Park, which was filled with 49,000 spectators, chanted: "Only the SGE will be German champions!" Club icon Karl- Heinz "Charly" Körbel at half-time on Sky: "Apart from Bayern Munich, we are the best team at the moment."
The Hoffenheim team, who were completely overwhelmed at first, came back with two goals from Christoph Baumgartner (37th) and Ozan Kabak (46th), but Jesper Lindström (56th) made the 4-2 victory perfect for the Hessians.
Glasner gave Rode a break
Before kick-off, Eintracht's former defender Martin Hinteregger was officially dismissed.
“I went back to my homeland, but this is my home.
I'm super grateful," said the Austrian, who surprisingly ended his professional career in May, addressing the cheering fans as a farewell.
As announced, coach Oliver Glasner gave his captain Sebastian Rode a break, but Daichi Kamada, who was recently ill, played in Eintracht's midfield.
The Croatian World Cup runner-up Andrej Kramaric returned to the starting line-up for the guests – but TSG didn't start offensively at first.
The guests found almost no means against extremely aggressive and strong-running Frankfurters and also helped a lot with the first two goals conceded.
Before the 0:1, Eduardo Quaresma carelessly frittered away the ball, the 0:2 made possible by goalkeeper Oliver Baumann with a failed fist defence.
Even after that, Eintracht remained enthusiastic.
Götze and Kamada in particular repeatedly initiated dangerous attacks, and Lindstrom was also a constant source of trouble.
And striker Kolo Muani proved his excellent understanding of the game in many scenes.
Hoffenheim could hardly counter this offensive power, and coach André Breitenreiter's team also disappointed in terms of fighting.
Baumgartner's goal came practically out of nowhere, but gave the visitors a tailwind.
The quick 2:3 by Kabak immediately after the change of sides nourished the hope for the turnaround.
Breitenreiter had made three changes at halftime, and the attitude was now much better.
But Frankfurt quickly found its rhythm again.