Hamburger SV earned another much needed three points with victory over an under-strength Borussia Mönchengladbach, even if it was not enough to move them out of the Bundesliga’s bottom three.
Gladbach had led, against the run of play, through Andreas Christensen, however Filip Kostic levelled for the hosts before the break.
Hamburg completely dominated the second half, with American striker Bobby Wood eventually scoring the winner with ten minutes remaining.
Illness rules out Müller and Raffael; Stindl missing too
After a 0-0 draw at Borussia-Park in the league in October, Hamburg were looking to avenge the 2-1 defeat to Gladbach here at the Volksparkstadion in the DFB-Pokal at the beginning of the month.
Despite three wins in their last five Hamburg still find themselves in the bottom three. Albin Ekdal scored the only goal late on as they beat Hertha BSC last Sunday. Markus Gisdol made two changes to his starting eleven, with Walace and the ill Nicolai Müller replaced by Gotoku Sakai and Kostic.
With five wins since the winter break Gladbach have more than put the poor first half to season to bed. They won their last Bundesliga game, beating Schalke 4-2 last weekend, although have since played the Royal Blues again with a 1-1 draw in the first leg of the UEFA Europa League last-16.
Perhaps with one eye on the ongoing tie with Schalke, Dieter Hecking made five changes to his Gladbach, although two were enforced with Raffael also ill and Lars Stindl having a hip problem – both would prove big misses. Nico Elvedi, Christensen, Christoph Kramer, Patrick Herrmann and Josip Drmic all started.
The referee was Deniz Aytekin, who in midweek was in charge of a game that will go down in history – FC Barcelona’s amazing victory over Paris Saint-Germain.
Breathless first half finishes all square
Hamburg started the better side, with a Matthias Ostrzolek attack halted by Yann Sommer and Kostic striking well over. Their closest chance came from a Kostic corner though, with Kyriakos Papadopoulos failing to direct his shot on target and Gideon Jung unable to connect either.
Papadopoulous was then penalised for pulling back Herrmann on the counter, with the Greek defender seeing a yellow card. More critically though, Gladbach scored from the free-kick, with Christensen outjumping Jung to give them the lead with their first attempt on goal.
Hamburg then thought they had equalised. Ekdal received a through ball from Lewis Holtby and played it back to Wood, who put it in the back of the net. With Gladbach appealing for offside against Ekdal, Aytekin consulted with his assistants, who hadn't flagged. Eventually, and correctly, he disallowed the goal.
Gladbach responded by going down the other end and almost scoring. Elvedi found Mahmoud Dahood, who crossed in to Drmic. Drmic, without a goal since his solitary effort whilst on loan at Hamburg last season, had his shot excellently saved by René Adler.
Holtby then had another Hamburg goal disallowed. Another tight call, but he did appear to be offside before chipping the ball over Sommer. It didn’t matter much though, as a minute later Kostic headed in the equaliser from a Dennis Diekmeier cross.
The Foals had a great chance to restore the lead just before half time. Herrmann broke clear and was one-on-one with Adler, but again Hamburg’s keeper stayed strong and kept out his attempt, with Drmic’s follow-up blocked by Jung.
Wood scores winner after barrage of Hamburg pressure
The second half didn’t start with the same relentless pace, but Hamburg were still taking the game to their visitors. Wood continued to cause a nuisance of himself, having a shot deflect of Christensen, whilst Ekdal headed a corner straight at Sommer.
They had another goal disallowed when Papadopoulous headed in, although the whistle had long since gone for an infringement.
Gladbach were having to soak up a huge amount of pressure in the second half. Hamburg continued to press, with Wood setting up a Sakai shot that was saved by Sommer, whilst substitute Michael Gregoritsch couldn’t connect with an Aaron Hunt cross.
The door was finally knocked down by Wood in the 80th minute. He couldn’t get anything from a battle with Tony Jantschke in the air, but Kostic crossed the ball back in, and after taking the moment he needed to get around Jannik Vestegaard he fired it in.
Shorn of the usual front two, not to mention the injured Thorgan Hazard, Gladbach lacked the firepower to snatch a late equaliser. This was summed up by the one effort Drmic had late on, when from Oscar Wendt’s cross he headed high and wide.
They would have to be content for just their third defeat since Hecking took over. With all the other sides in the bottom five picking up points, it was an important victory for Hamburg though, who are level on points with the two sides immediately above them - Werder Bremen and VfL Wolfsburg.