"Nice reason to change": strange substitution in Hoffenheim

When his teammates were still working hard to win the season opener in the Europa League, TSG Hoffenheim's Florian Grillitsch had better plans. The Austrian has to leave the pitch because of urgent obligations.

When Florian Grillitsch packs the bare essentials and rushes out of the TSG Hoffenheim stadium, his teammates are just starting a complicated, exhausting, nerve-wracking second half of the Europa League opener against Red Star Belgrade. They could have used the Austrian Grillitsch in the fight for the second victory in the 15th game on the European stage. The early departure of the midfielder came as a complete surprise to observers, but it was not a scandal, on the contrary: As TSG Hoffenheim announced during the game, Grillitsch will become a father and drive to the birth of his child during the game. Regardless of the score, the regular player should be with his wife Hannah on time.

"Nice reason to change, Florian Grillitsch is going to the birth of his child," announced the Kraichgauer's social media department. Already at halftime, manager Alexander Rosen had said to replace the up to good, very present Grillitsch at Nitro: "I haven't seen that either. But maybe we'll have another European baby that night."

The first good news of the evening for Florian Grillitsch: The colleagues ensured the victory, in the end there was a hard-fought, long-trembling 2-0 victory through goals from Christoph Baumgartner (64th) and Munas Dabbur (90th + 3). The Bundesliga team thus created a good starting position to survive the group phase of an international competition for the third time. Under the former coach Julian Nagelsmann, they failed early in the Europa League and Champions League. While the team is now at the end of the day, the former Bremer has a long night ahead of him.