It was Hamburg who had the first big opportunity just a minute into the game, as they broke from their own half, but Rudnevs had his shot saved by Trapp from just inside the area.
Aigner was then bundled over inside the box just a minute later, but the referee waved play on in a frantic start at the Commerzbank-Arena.
In the 11th minute however, Eintracht made their possession pay off as Meier was caught by Djourou in the area, and the referee had no hesitation in pointing to the spot. Alexander The Great made no mistake, sending Drobny the wrong way to give the Eagles an early 1-0 advantage.
Between the goal and the end of the half their was a lull in play, but Meier hit a 30 yard effort in the 23rd minute that Drobny did well to save, while Piazon hit the roof of the net with a free kick just five minutes later.
With the last kick of the first half Hamburg drew level. Gouaida produced a superb bit of dribbling to beat three players on the left side before passing to Müller, who then slid through Zoltán Stieber, who made it 1-1 with a tidy near post finish.
The teams went in level at the break thanks to the late goal, something which may have changed the team talks of the respective managers, but it appeared the visitors’ approach of patient probing play could produce results.
Despite the setback, the home side began the second half with strong attacking play, just as we saw in the opening 45. Just after Ostrzolek of HSV had received his 5th yellow card, ruling him out of next week’s Dortmund fixture, Meier produced a lovely finish from the edge of the area to restore the Eagles’ lead. The goal came from a poor clearance by Jiracek, allowing the Bundesliga’s top scorer to bag another, making it 2-1.
10 minutes after receiving his first caution, Ostrzolek was shown a second yellow for clipping Aigner down the Frankfurt right. On replay, it looks a little harsh on the Hamburg man, but he simply should have been more careful in that situation with the referee watching his every move.
This was, in truth, what killed the game off, as Hamburg struggled to sustain any real attacking pressure in the remaining quarter of the game.
Beister had a half chance with 12 minutes left as he found space on the right side of the Frankfurt box, but Trapp was equal to his effort to make sure his side still led.
There was a dramatic close to the game, as Djourou conceded his second penalty of the game in the 91st minute for a clumsy tackle on Stendera. Meier stepped up to complete his hat-trick, but unbelievably missed the target, striking the crossbar.
It wasn't to matter though as the Eagles secured a valuable three points to move back into eighth, overtaking Werder Bremen in the process. Another battling performance from HSV went without reward, and the sending off plus a late injury to ajkovic made sure there would be more selection issues for Zinnbauer next week.
