More away day blues for Hannover at Hamburg
Hamburg – Hamburger SV bounced back from two successive defeats to beat northern rivals Hannover 96 3-1 in Matchday 13's early Sunday game at the Imtech Arena.
First blood to Hannover
The visitors took a first-half lead through Sabolcs Huszti, but Milan Badelj responded promptly to get Hamburg back on level terms. Maximilian Beister headed the hosts in front at the start of the second half and a late strike from Hakan Calhanoglu eventually sewed up the points for Bert van Marwijk's men. For Hannover, who had Salif Sane sent off in the final minute for a second bookable offence, it was the sixth defeat in six away games this season and it leaves them now with just two points from their last seven games all-told.
The contest got off to a cagey start, with Hamburg seeing more of the ball and Hannover winning most of the one-on-ones. Pierre-Michel Lasogga wriggled through the guest defence to test Ron-Robert Zieler for the first time just shy of the quarter-hour mark, but the 96ers custodian was equal to the task.
Five minutes later, his Hamburg counterpart Rene Adler spectacularly scraped Mame Diouf's downward header off the line at the other end, although an offside call would have rendered a goal invalid anyway. Soon after that Adler stopped an effort on the bounce from Diouf that would have counted, but on 28 minutes a lapse in concentration from the HSV keeper led to Hannover taking the lead. A short pass out to Tomas Rincon, with three opponents around him, resulted in Huszti robbing the Venezuelan holding midfielder and clinically planting the ball past Adler into the corner of the net.
Hamburg turn it around
The unaccustomed sensation of being in front away from home did not last long for the men from Lower Saxony, as the hosts got themselves back on level terms all of three minutes later. Calhanoglu played a free kick in from the right, Zieler punched the ball clear and Badelj returned it with interest, the Croatian international's spectacular dipping volley also ending a personal 29-game scoring drought. Back on level terms, Hamburg pressed on in search of a quick second and following half-chances for Lasogga and Maximilian Beister, Jonathan Tah headed a Calhanoglu corner inches wide shortly before the break.
No luck there, but within a minute of the restart Hamburg were in front. Badelj won possession and fed the ball to Heiko Westermann and the defensive all-rounder's cross from the right was headed home by Beister to put the hosts firmly on the front foot. Lasogga had a couple more sights of goal that came to naught in the period that followed, with Hannover now looking decidedly shaky.
After that, however, the match looked to be petering out without much further ado – until Calhanoglu gave the home crowd something more to cheer, closing out a Hamburg breakaway with a fine finish that sealed Hannover's fate. Sane's personal day to forget was sealed when he got his marching orders in the 90th minute, after earning a second yellow card for a foul on Westermann.
Line-ups and statistics
