What the papers say: 'A magic moment was missing'

The Sunday edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine headline reads 'Paralysed by heat’ and their report soon turns to the forthcoming Werkself fixtures in the Champions League: "The Champions League anthem rang out through the BayArena during half-time in the, at times, sluggish summer kickabout between Bayer Leverkusen and TSG Hoffenheim and the tune will soon be heard again several times. On this afternoon the sounds from the loudspeakers sounded somewhat strange as the anthem did not awake a great feeling but rather yearning desire. For fresh autumn evenings, intensive football under floodlights, after the magic of the European stage. In the present of the third Bundesliga matchday it was, in contrast, extremely hot and the quality of the 0-0 draw between Bayer Leverkusen and TSG Hoffenheim on offer to the fans clearly suffered under these conditions. A somewhat livelier closing stage was not enough for Bayer Leverkusen to win their fourth competitive match of the season."

And the Rheinische Post also saw the prevailing conditions in the context of the performances on pitch: "It was hot and oppressive. When the teams came onto the pitch at the BayArena the thermometer was showing a merciless 33 degrees. The heat did not initially seem to cause the Werkself too many problems. They appeared to be enjoying playing, pressed high and put the TSG defence under pressure early on. 90 per cent possession in the first ten minutes of the game spoke volumes."

The Bild am Sonntag reports: "Over two thirds possession. An incredible corner ratio of 19 to 0. No goals in the end. The first goalless draw between Leverkusen and Hoffenheim. Hoffenheim are satisfied with the point. But for Bayer it just means a lot of ball for nothing. Rudi Völler (59) accused the visitors of cowardice: 'They used to play when they came here. That was almost fear of us. Unfortunately we couldn't find the key.' Captain Lars Bender: 'When you have so many corners you have to make something of it.' Such a one-sided corner ratio in the Bundesliga has only once been higher, since records were kept, back in November 2008 in the game between Bayern and Bielefeld (20 to 0). Albeit the record champions won the game 3-1."

The Cologne-based Express writes: "No goals in the clash between the coach friends. In spite of clear superiority, Bayer Leverkusen were only able to manage a draw against Hoffenheim. His old mate Alfred Schreuder was the first to take a point from Bayer coach Peter Bosz this season… Bosz: 'In my opinion seven points from three games are two too few. We were unlucky to drop them today and we really deserved more.'":

The analysis in Kicker: "Bayer Leverkusen invested a lot of effort against 1899 Hoffenheim but had to settle for a goalless draw in the end. The Werkself dominated in all statistics, in the end had 75 per cent possession and clocked up a ludicrous corner ratio of 19 to 0. Neither the hosts nor the defensively oriented Kraichgauer could score with the few goalscoring opportunities carelessly wasted... With temperatures of over 30 degrees, the Werkself set the pace and made the first impressions on the game. The Bosz team, particularly via the pacey Bailey, try to find a way into the Hoffenheim penalty area. But the TSG defence was often solid and defended with care."

"Bayer 04 were unable to extend the hoped-for dream start to the Bundesliga season," is in the online version of the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger. Under the category of "That was good" stands: "In general, the Leverkusen discipline and readiness to play their system of possession against one of the better opponents in the league even if they were extremely defensive. Apart from two situations in the first half, when Belfodil could have set up goals with somewhat more vision, the Werkself impressed in denying counter-attacks. Also good was the intensity of Bayer 04 in trying to force a result as was once again the ground covered by the whole team achieved another top level of over 118 kilometres." The final assessment reads as follows: "Football matches without goals are rarely satisfying as was the case this time. Hoffenheim stole two points from Leverkusen with great commitment and destructive football but they only took one point away with them. Bayer 04 made great efforts but a moment of magic was missing. That produced the minimal return."