Minnows punching above weight

LIVERPOOL fans may believe that this was their weekend, but even beating Chelsea at Stamford Bridge doesn’t quite match the achievements of Hoffenheim and Leixoes.

Hoffenheim is a small suburb of a small town named Sinsheim in Southern Germany. Just five years ago they were an obscure team in Germany’s equivalent of Conference South.

Since then, with the aid of local billionaire Dietmar Hopp and some shrewd moves in the transfer market, they’ve gone from strength to strength. They caused another sensation at the start of the season, briefly leading the table after winning their first two games before going down to a heavy defeat at Bayer Leverkusen.