Bert van Marwijk was looking to get off to a successful start as Hamburg coach away to Frankfurt...
Bert van Marwijk was looking to get off to a successful start as Hamburg coach away to Frankfurt...

Hamburg squeeze late draw on van Marwijk debut

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Frankfurt - A late goal from Marcell Jansen earned Hamburger SV a 2-2 draw at Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday evening and a share of the spoils in Bert van Marwijk's first game in charge of the Red Shorts.

Learning curve

Johannes Flum and Marco Russ twice had the home side in front, with Pierre-Michel Lasogga hauling HSV temporarily level on the stroke of half time and Jansen repeating the trick against the run of play with four minutes of regulation time remaining. The result leaves both sides still separated by a three-point margin in the lower half of the table, with Frankfurt on eight and Hamburg up to five.

Van Marwijk got to know his new team on Wednesday, 12 hours after they had beaten Greuther Fürth in the DFB Cup. Given how well that game went for the Red Shorts, the Dutchman saw no reason to make any changes and Hamburg ran out with an unchanged starting XI for only the second time this season.

It was Frankfurt, however, who were making most of the running from the get-go. Stefan Aigner went close to giving Armin Veh’s men the lead when his header into the ground bounced up and against the crossbar - fortunately for Hamburg keeper Rene Adler in a direction which took it away from his goal.

Adler earns his corn


Adler was soon in action again, but he was powerless to prevent Flum putting the hosts in front when given too much space at the far post to tuck the ball in from close range. Hamburg’s immediate response was a Rafael van der Vaart free-kick which curled just wide of the post, but it was a rare punctuation in the hosts’ dominance.

The former Germany No1 earned his spots with a series of saves thereafter, most notably tipping Vaclav Kadlec’s dipping effort over the crossbar before a fumble from Marco Russ’ effort let in Aigner, but the linesman’s flag came to the visitors' rescue. They had no such luck in the 55th minute when Russ put Frankfurt back in front, finishing off a fine move involving Flum down the left and Anderson in the middle, all in the blink of an eye.

Defensive frailties


Aigner flashed another shot across the face of Adler’s goal as Frankfurt continued to find holes in a Hamburg defence which continued to look anything but secure. That they did not concede a third was down to a mixture of poor finishing and good goalkeeping, and van Marwijk will be in little doubt as to where the current priority lies in terms of stabilising his side's performances.

The new coach did at least have fortune on his side on his Bundesliga return, as Jansen's late shot took a telling deflection on its way in to clinch an unexpected point for the northerners.

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