Hamburg and Wolfsburg play out first ever goalless draw
Hamburg and Wolfsburg had to settle for a point after playing out their first goalless draw in the Bundesliga on Saturday afternoon.
Hamburg 0-0 Wolfsburg
Hamburg began the game brightly and might have gone ahead through the returning Walace on five minutes, but the Brazilian saw his effort blocked by USMNT defender John Anthony Brooks. The hosts continued to look more dangerous in the pouring rain at the Volksparkstadion, and had the best chance of the half on the half-hour - Jann-Fiete Arp latched onto Walace's excellent through ball and turned Felix Uduokhai brilliantly, only to put his shot just wide of the post. Gideon Jung then blasted high and wide from a Filip Kostic pull-back as the two sides went in goalless at the break.
The game continued in a similar vein after the interval, with Hamburg on top but failing to carve out many clear-cut chances. Both coaches made changes in attack - with Paul-Georges Ntep replacing Divock Origi and Luca Waldschmidt on for Tatsuya Ito - but it was a defender, Dennis Diekmeier, who had the game's first shot on target in the 69th minute. Hamburg continued to push and went close through Aaron Hunt, who whistled a free-kick just over the bar, while Wolfsburg finally flared into life late on. It wasn't to be, though, as the two sides played out their very first goalless draw in the Bundesliga.
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Line-ups
Hamburg: Mathenia – Diekmeier, Papadopoulos (c), Mavraj, Santos – Jung, Hunt, Walace (Ekdal 78') - Ito (Waldschmidt 60'), Arp (Hahn 83'), Kostic
Unused substitutes: Schipplock, Pollersbeck, Sakai, van Drongelen
Coach: Markus Gisdol
Wolfsburg: Casteels – Verhaegh, Uduokhai, Brooks, William – Guilavogui, Arnold – Origi (Ntep 57'), Didavi (Osimhen 90+1'), Malli (Gerhardt 78') – Gomez (c)
Unused substitutes: Grün, Bruma, Dimata, Knoche
Coach: Martin Schmidt
Match stats
- This was the first ever goalless draw between the two sides in 41 Bundesliga meetings.Three of the players who started the game - Douglas Santos, Walace and William - won Olympic gold with Brazil at the 2016 Games in Rio.Diekmeier's attempt in the 69th minute was the game's first shot on target. The Wolves failed to get a single shot on target in 90 minutes.Hamburg have kept clean sheets in three successive Bundesliga games for the first time since September 2015.Wolfsburg have drawn nine of their 15 games in the Bundesliga this season, three more than any other team.