Gladbach came into the home fixture off the back of a 3-0 win last weekend against Hertha. A victory would see Gladbach as high as sixth come games end further improving their charge towards Champions League qualification. Victory for Hamburg would see them escape the relegation playoff spot and go no higher than fifteenth. Çalhanoglu and Nordtveit returned from suspension for their respective sides.
Hamburg got the game rolling at Borussia Park in front of a large travelling support. The first chance if the game fell to Gladbach's Juan Arango who fired a shot high and wide of the goal from outside the box. The next real chance came after a quarter of an hour, again in the home sides favour. Wideman Hermann saw his thirty yard effort blocked by Englishman Michael Mancienne. Dæms came close but Adler saved the shot.
Gladbach were in control of the game up until, Hamburg scored against the run of play with their first attempt of the game through a Jacques Zoua header. Zoua latched onto a deep delivery from Çalhanoglu and planted the ball past TerStegen who found himself in no-man’s-land. Just shy of the half hour mark and underdogs Hamburg were leading. Hamburg upped the tempo and saw more chances come their way. Lassoga came close with a headed effort but seen his effort hacked off the line, furthermore Van Der Vaart rose to meet the ball in the air after Stranzl missed it but he guided the ball past both TerStegen and the post. It could have quite easily been two for Hamburg.
Just nine minutes later, Hamburg held on as Gladbach skipper Dæms slotted home a rebound from his missed penalty. The aforementioned Mancienne to blame for the penalty, as he jumped with hands up in the air. Adler guessed the right way but he couldn't hold onto it (mainly down to the fact he saved it with his legs) and Dæms found himself with the simple task of slotting home from yards out into an empty net.
An angered TerStegen vividly shows his emotions towards the referee after he felt he'd been fouled by Swiss defender Djourou late on, the referee was having none of it and told the shot-stopper to calm down. The Foals almost had a second when Arango ran through a bus sized gap in the Hamburg defence but the Venezuelan was unable to capitalise as Adler saved the ball and his team from conceding unnecessarily. Arango tested Adler shortly after as he flicked a header on from a Raffael delivery. Hamburg came equally as close, if not closer, to scoring as HeikoWestermann glanced a header goal wards in the dying embers but the whistle had already went.
Half Time: Mönchengladbach 1-1 Hamburg - Adler the busier of the two keepers. Half largely dominated by Gladbach who boasted 62% possession. Anyone's game going into the second half with both teams coming close a multitude of times.
The teams came out for the second half virtually unchanged other than Lasogga departing the field through a muscle injury and Ola John coming on in his place. Similarly to the first half Gladbach started out the stronger of the two sides. A mazy run from Hermann was cleared by Mancienne for a corner which came to nothing. Veteran Arango made another clever run but was fractionally offside. the first goal bound chance of the second forty-five came from Gladbach which saw Max Kruse decide precision over power and produce a good save from Adler. Hamburg were next to come close and agonisingly so through Ola John, who beat Brazilian Raffael then passed the ball onto goalscorer Zoua who further played in Rincon who's low cross was attacked by Van Der Vaart who had no luck in scoring.
Gladbach got back into the swing of things and began to dominate again. A quickly costless taken costless kick almost turned into a penalty as Mancienne went through Kruse cleanly, albeit just from a few yards out. The pressure on Hamburg eventually paid off when Raffael popped up with his fifteenth goal this season. Some excellent build up play led Kruse to play the attacker through on goal. Raffael took the ball past Adler and slotted home despite Westermann's best efforts at keeping it out. With a quarter of an hour to go, Gladbach led 2-1.
Just minutes later, Gladbach saw their lead increased to two as Spanish centre back Alvaro Dominguez popped up at the back post. Three points wrapped up with only 10 minutes remaining. Hamburg had the chance to pull one back through Zoua, however, he was unable to score a second as TerStegen spread himself and saved the shot with his leg. Hamburg's very own Turkish delight, HakanÇalhanoglu tested TerStegen with a long range effort. Late Gladbach sub Rupp failed to convert a chance which would have been Gladbach's 4th. His effort blazed over the bar and he had failed to rub even more salt into Hamburg's very open wounds.
FT Mönchengladbach 3-1 Hamburg
The result saw Hamburg succumbed to their sixteenth defeat of the season and third defeat since MirkoSlomka took over. Hamburg now lie dangerously in the relegation zone with only EintrachtBraunschweig below them. Tears on the faces of Hamburg fans but smiles on Gladbach fans who's team are sitting pretty in 6th place just 3 points away from 4th placed Bayer. European football next season looking very likely for Lucien Favre's foals. This result is partnered with the recent signing of Augsburg's Andre Hahn, for as little has €2.25m - signing a deal with Mönchengladbach until 2018.