10.02.2018
HSV beaten 2-0 in Dortmund
Hamburger SV were unable to bring any points home from Dortmund on Saturday afternoon, losing 2-0 after second-half goals from Michy Batshuayi and Mario Götze.
Matchday 22 saw HSV suffer their first defeat under Bernd Hollerbach. The Rothosen put up a good fight against Borussia Dortmund at the sold-out Signal-Iduna-Park, but were unable to find a way past Roman Bürki. BVB struck twice after the break, first through Michy Batshuayi and then late on courtesy of Mario Götze, to wrap up a 2-0 win.
Mergim Mavraj & Co. stood firm against the returning Marco Reus and the rest of BVB's attack in the first half, but couldn't keep them at bay for 90 minutes.
Solid first half...
HSV coach Bernd Hollerbach made some defensive alterations to the side that started against Hannover, with the suspended Kyriakos Papadopoulos replaced by Mergim Mavraj. The fit-again Gideon Jung also returned to the back four, with Gotoku Sakai moving out to the right and Dennis Diekmeier dropping to the bench. There were no other changes in front or behind the back four. Hamburg looked to play with a compact setup and they managed to keep BVB at bay in the first half, despite star attacker Marco Reus returning to their starting XI after several months out injured. At the other end, the Rothosen were creating the occasional chance on the counter, and also carried a threat from set pieces. Walace and Bobby Wood came closest to scoring, but neither were able to force Roman Bürki into action. HSV could have been considered the better side in the opening 45 minutes, remaining solid defensively and continuing to ask questions of the BVB defence. Borussia’s only real opportunity came just before the interval, but captain Sakai was quick to clear ahead of Reus and André Schürrle.
Sejad Salihovic almost levelled the scores in the closing stages, but the ball just wouldn’t sit right.
...BVB clinch it late on
However, it wasn’t long before Mathenia did have to pick the ball out of his net, despite Hamburg arguably looking the more likely to score early in the second half. Christian Pulisic wasn’t closed down quickly enough and his low ball across the penalty area was turned in at the far post by Michy Batshuayi in the 49th minute for his third BVB goal in only his second game. It was an early setback for Hollerbach’s men in the second half, and the coach opted to change things up in search of an equaliser, with Fiete Arp, Sejad Salihovic and – shortly after – André Hahn all introduced. With around 15 minutes to play, Hahn and Arp both had good chances to level the scores too, but while the former failed to get enough on his snapshot to seriously trouble Bürki, the latter was only inches away from connecting with Sakai’s ball across the six-yard box. HSV’s necessary offensive approach of course opened up space for Dortmund to attack into as well, although a number of chances went begging for the hosts. They finally did wrap up the three points in added time, however, when Mario Götze dinked Schürrle’s through-ball over Mathenia and into the back of the net HSV.
MATCH FACTS:
Borussia Dortmund:
Bürki - Piszczek, Akanji, Toprak, Toljan - Weigl - Pulisic (85’ Castro), Kagawa (62’ Dahoud), Reus (71’ Götze), Schürrle - Batshuayi
Hamburger SV:
Mathenia - Sakai, Mavraj, Jung, van Drongelen, Douglas - Ekdal (71’ Hahn), Hunt (54’ Salihovic), Walace - Wood (54’ Arp), Kostic
Goals:
1-0 Batshuayi (49’), 2-0 Götze (92’)
Attendance:
81,360 (sold-out)
Referee:
Marco Fritz (Korb)
Yellow Cards:
- / Jung
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)
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