Fürth foil hosts Hamburg
Hamburg - Cellar-dwellers Greuther Fürth maintained their unbeaten record under interim head coach Ludwig Preis courtesy of a scrappy 1-1 draw in Hamburg.
Stalemate
The hosts set the early tone, but after Marcell Jansen and Maximilian Beister both wasted clear-cut chances, it was they who fell behind when Nikola Djurdjic clipped Thomas Pledl's pass over the onrushing Rene Adler.
With Fürth sitting deep, the Red Shorts continued to throw numbers forward in search of an equaliser and they were duly rewarded when Beister found the top corner from Dennis Aogo's knockdown. HSV's dominance was unwavering as they maintained the pressure on Fürth's goal, but profligacy and an inspired Wolfgang Hesl prevented the hosts taking the lead.
It remained virtually one-way traffic after the break, but in keeping with Hamburg's performance, Rafael van der Vaart squandered a golden opportunity by firing straight at Hesl when unmarked ten yards from goal.
However, in and around the hour mark, it was Fürth who couldn't make the most of an extended period of pressure, as Stephan Fürstner twice failed to find the target from range either side of Djurdjic being denied by a last-ditch block from Slobodan Rajkovic. Both outfits went in search of a winner in the closing stages, but after Heung-Min Son's overhead was saved by Hesl and Marcus Berg fired wastefully wide, neither were able to claim all three points.
Line-ups and statistics
