02.02.2019

Arminia Bielefeld 2-0 HSV

Little goes to plan for HSV as they lose 2-0, having been reduced to ten men early on.

Die Rothosen were defeated 2-0 by Arminia Bielefeld on Matchday 20, in front of a crowd of 26,515 in a sold-out Schüco-Arena. Missing key players, HSV suffered a further blow in the twelfth minute, when Gotoku Sakai was sent off for a professional foul as the last man. The hosts made the most of their extra-man advantage, scoring twice soon after through Andreas Voglsammer and Reinhold Yabo. Despite giving it their all in the second half, HSV were unable to avoid their first competitive defeat of 2019.

Sakai’s red card in the 12th minute gave Bielefeld the upper hand early on.

LITTLE GOES TO PLAN…

The conditions ahead of the game weren’t ideal from a HSV perspective. Having had to deal with captain Aaron Hunt’s absence due to injury, there was further bad news when top-goalscorer Pierre-Michel Lasogga was ruled out due to a muscular injury on the eve of the match. And if that wasn’t enough, things went from bad to worse once the game was underway, with Sakai receiving his marching orders early on after fouling Bielefeld striker Voglsammer, who was through on goal, leaving HSV with an uphill struggle as the game progressed. Down to ten men, the Hamburg players were put under considerable pressure by their opponents, who made the most of their man advantage to score twice in quick succession. The hosts’ first goal should have been ruled out, however, with Voglsammer raising his boot dangerously high to poke the ball home after a set-piece. There were no complaints with Bielefeld’s second though, with some lax defending allowing Yabo to strike from distance. The game looked firmly out of Hamburg’s reach before the half-hour mark, but despite this, die Rothosen refused to give up, and went into the changing rooms the stronger team at the end of the half.

Ito was twice-involved in the second half. The Japanese international was denied a penalty after going down in the box, and missed a chance to score in the last few minutes of the game.

… BUT HSV STILL FOUGHT

Die Rothosen came back out for the second half with some tactical tweaks. Jatta, who has started the game as a striker, moved across to the left wing, and Ito moved up front. Despite the one man disadvantage, HSV controlled the majority of the play, with Bielefeld happy to sit back and try and break quickly on the counter attack. However, Hamburg were able to contain Bielefeld and were on the front foot despite playing with ten men, which ensured the game remained exciting until the final whistle. The excitement could have further increased after the hour mark, when Ito was denied a penalty by the referee. The Japanese striker was involved yet again when he had the chance to pull one back in the 86th minute, but missed. Despite die Rothosen taking control in the second half, the hosts looked comfortable over the course of the game. Ultimately, the combination of missing players and the early red card were just too much for HSV to be able to turn the game around, despite the visitors dominating proceedings in the second half.

No show from HSV

HSV head coach Markus Gisdol was forced into changing his team ahead of the trip south. Long term injured first choice keeper Adler was still recovering from a broken rib before his understudy Mathenia also got injured and was ruled out of the matchday 31 encounter. Up stepped under-21 stopper Mikel to the fray. Key winger Kostic who scored the only goal of the game between the two sides on matchday 14 was suspended so his place went to Austrian Gregoritsch. Ostrzolek got the nod at left back ahead of Douglas Santos while Walace replaced Jung in defensive midfield. Gisdol made four changes in all to the side which lost 1-2 at home to relegation certainties Darmstadt last time out. The new-look formation struggled early on. Augsburg created three top scoring opportunities within the opening 20 minutes. New keeper Mikel managed to keep out efforts by Kohr and Schmid and was grateful to be able to watch a Stafylidis free kick fizz narrowly wide of target. On 22 minutes the visitors were in luck again as an Altintop effort struck the left hand post with Mikel beaten. It seemed to the capacity crowd including yet another sold out contingent of travelling HSV faithful that it weould only be a matter of time before the home side would break the deadlock and they did as Altintop rounded off two counter attacks on 28 and 41 minutes to make the halftime score 2-0 to Augsburg. Mickel was powerless on both occasions and was HSV’s best man before the break.

Deserved defeat

Lasogga came on for Gregoritsch and Jung replaced Walace at the start of the second half as Gisdol opted for a two-pronged attack. Later Jatta replaced Ostrzolek. The ploy simply didn’t work as the Rothosen had more of the ball than in the previous half but were completely harmless in front of goal. Augsburg played a much more intelligent game and struck the woodwork again through Baier. That superior intelligence was underlined late on as Augsburg struck twice through Max and substitute Bobadilla (76., 85.). It was game over for HSV who failed to threaten until the 84th minute for Lasogga and Wood to miss chances. It was simply not good enough and the Rothosen remain just one point above the relegation play off spot in the table. Matchday 22 sees Gisdol and Co. host Mainz who are level on points but two places better due to a superior goal difference. Only a win will do as the teams lock horns at the Volksparkstadion in Hamburg next Sunday (07.05.17, 3.30 PM).

Match details:

FC Augsburg:

Hitz - Verhaegh, Gouweleeuw, Hinteregger, Stafylidis - Kohr, D. Baier (88. Callsen-Bracker) - Schmid, Halil Altintop (80. Bobadilla), Max (87. Ji) - Finnbogason

HSV:

Mickel - Diekmeier, K. Papadopoulos, Mavraj, Ostrzolek (63. Jatta) - Sakai, Walace (46. Jung) - Gregoritsch (46. Lasogga), Holtby, Hunt - Wood

Goals:

1:0 Altintop (28.), 2:0 Altintop (41.), 3:0 Max (76.), 4:0 Bobadilla (85.)

Booked:

Baier (48.) / Mavraj (33.), Gregoritsch (44.), Ostrzolek (51.), Holtby (72.)

Referee:

Manuel Gräfe (Berlin)

Att:

30.660 (sold out)