Two sides with contrasting ambitions met on Saturday afternoon as Hamburger SV hosted Bayer Leverkusen at the Volksparkstadion.
The home side were looking to end a run of two straight defeats against Schalke and Hertha Berlin respectively, but they still sat in 11th place after a solid start to the campaign.
Bayer have had a stuttering start to the season, however they have picked up seven out of the last nine points available in the league. Roger Schmidt appears to be having a tough time juggling the Bundesliga and Champions League, with defeats at home against Darmstadt and away to Borussia Dortmund in the last five matches underpinning the struggle.
In front of a packed stadium in the Hanseatic city, it was the home side who had the first opportunity as ex-Bayer man Emir Spahic met Lewis Holtby's cross, but it was straight at Bernd Leno.
Hamburg began the game with a strong pressing game making life difficult for the Leverkusen midfield to move the ball efficiently. A scrappy spell resulted in which neither team produced any opportunity of note.
Early pressure from Bayer Leverkusen
In the 17th minute Aaron Hunt found space to shoot from outside the box, but he pulled the shot wide.
Seconds later, Leverkusen had a good chance as Javier Hernández was put through on the right side of the box by Christoph Kramer. His effort was blocked for a corner with Rene Adler struggling.
The visitors had a huge chance in the 24th minute when Kyriakos Papadopoulos met a Julian Brandt free-kick five-yards out. Adler produced a stunning point blank save to palm it over for a corner.
Brandt wasn't just causing problems with his deliveries though. He got in behind in the 41st minute courtesy of a ball from Giulio Donati. His shot from inside the box was saved well again by Adler as Bayer began to take a strangle hold on the game just before the break.
So at half time the score was 0-0. The visitors without a doubt settling into the game more and having the better opportunities; they did everything but score!
For Bruno Labbadia's men it was a case of back to the drawing board as their game plan was starting to fade out. The pressing game of the opening period was always going to be tough to sustain.
Hamburger SV fail to take chances
Early on in the second half Hamburg had a trio of chances. Firstly, Nicolai Müller passed to Hunt, who had a tame effort saved easily.
Ivo Ilicevic suffered the same fate seconds later, while Müller shot over from the left side of the box as the home side began to probe.
In the 60th minute, Leverkusen were forced into a change as Omer Toprak limped off, replaced by young defender Tin Jedvaj and presenting HSV with a chance against a refreshed back line.
As the hour mark came and went, two men who had been quite were Pierre-Michel Lasogga and Stefan Keißling, the respective forwards of HSV and B04. They hadn't got the service to threaten and had largely remained absentees in the scrappy midfield battles.
Hamburg came close with just over 15 minutes of the match remaining as a free-kick from Holtby found Johan Djourou, yet he was denied by the offside flag as he headed wide.
The atmosphere turned sour in the 78th minute as former HSV player Hakan Calhanoglu was introduced to a chorus of boos from the Volksparkstadion.
Hunt was forced off with an injury with seven minutes remaining, replaced by play-off hero Marcelo Diaz as the game was filtering out.
With a minute left of stoppage time, Hernandez was flagged offside from a free-kick as his header flew over.
With no further chances to note, the game finished 0-0. Definitely a better point for HSV given the way they played, and their craving for consistency, while Schmidt's side will have felt they did enough to nick a win.
The result left Hamburg 11th with 11 points, while Bayer sit in 8th with 14 points in what was a much more helpful result for the hosts.
