Hamburg ride luck to triumph over Hannover
Hamburg - Hannover 96 centre-back Marcelo had a day to forget as Hamburger SV picked up successive Bundesliga victories for the first time since April 2013 following a 2-1 win over their northern rivals.
Drobny saves penalty
The Brazilian was the unlucky party as he twice deflected the ball beyond Ron-Robert Zieler to hand the hosts a two-goal lead and, while Artur Sobiech reduced the arrears just past the hour mark, it wasn’t enough to prevent Hamburg climbing into mid-table.
While HSV head coach Josef Zinnbauer handed Chilean new recruit Marcelo Diaz a first Bundesliga start since joining from FC Basel 1893 on winter transfer window deadline day, his counterpart Tayfun Korkut kept faith with the side that collected a 1-1 draw with 1. FSV Mainz 05 during midweek. Both sides made a lively start to proceedings, though Hannover posed the greater threat as Jaroslav Drobny did well to tip Lars Stindl’s fierce drive from 25 yards over the bar with just six minutes on the clock.
The visitors boasted more possession, but with Hamburg getting stuck into their opponents, the fast and frantic start to the encounter petered out somewhat. However, the game was sparked back into life just past the 20-minute mark when Salif Sane beat Rafael van der Vaart to a loose ball inside the area to earn his side a penalty, which failed to produce the opening goal as Joselu’s tame spot kick was denied by Drobny for whom it was the second penalty save of the current campaign.
Marcelo’s double whammy
Less than two minutes later though, and it was Hamburg who took the lead against the run of play as Zoltan Stieber’s devilish delivery took a wicked deflection off of Marcelo’s outstretched leg to loop over the backpedalling 96 keeper Zieler. The wounded guests sought to produce an immediate response, but with Stindl and Jimmy Briand both failing to test Drobny with half chances before the break it was HSV, without a shot of their own target before the break, who led at half-time.
Both head coaches tweaked their line-ups during the interval with Joao Pereira replacing Hiroki Sakai at right-back to make his Bundesliga bow for Hannover, becoming the fourth Portuguese player to feature for the Reds. However, his inclusion did little to help the Lower Saxony side as they fell further behind five minutes after the restart when Marcelo’s block on Marcell Jansen’s long-range effort only served to wrong-foot Zieler.
Drobny to the rescue
Not to be deterred, the visitors stayed on the front foot against their deep-lying hosts. Drobny made a comfortable save after Marcelo rose highest to meet Hiroshi Kiyotake’s cross, but could do little about Hannover pulling a goal back. Another Kiyotake delivery caused chaos in the HSV box and after Marcelo somehow headed against the bar from six yards with Drobny stranded, it was left to Sobiech to nod home his second goal of the season, both of which have come against the same opponents.
Reducing the deficit with just under half an hour left to play breathed new life into Hannover’s performance with Joselu’s acrobatic effort drawing an equally spectacular save out of Drobny. At the other end Zieler did well to deny Stieber following a promising counter attack, which proved little more than a brief respite from Hannover's relentless barrage. Yet for all their late pressure and a Stindl free-kick that clipped the outside of the right post, the visitors couldn’t produce an equaliser as Hamburg held on to their narrow lead.
Line-ups and statistics
Check out this great gesture of Fair Play during the game, courtesy of the Bundesliga's official YouTube channel:
