Lee steals point for Kiel in injury time in six-goal thriller

Chances aplenty in end-to-end first half

The Hamburg coaching staff made only one change from the side who had beaten Wiesbaden on the previous Sunday at the same ground, with Bakery Jatta replacing the largely ineffective Louis Schaub on the right wing. But it was a mistake from Jatta which led to a surprise opener for Kiel with their first attack, in a similar manner to the early opener from Wiesbaden in the last home game. The Gambian winger gave the ball away cheaply in the middle of the park, Kiel broke quickly with on-loan Salih Özcan, who cut inside and fed to the edge of the box where Alexander Mühling was waiting. The Kiel midfielder bent the ball beautifully into the far corner to leave Julian Pollersbeck in the Hamburg goal helpless with only nine minutes on the clock. Just seven minutes later the Rothosen thought they had equalised but for a dubious refereeing decision. Aaron Hunt's chipped corner was headed in by Rick van Drongelen in a crowd of bodies at the front post, but the goal was ruled out after a VAR check. Bakery Jatta was standing in an offside position in front of Kiel 'keeper Gelios, but the Greek stopper was never getting to van Drongelen's flicked header even if the 22-year-old Hamburg winger had not been in front of him. 

The home side were then the beneficiaries of a similarly debatable decision only two minutes later as Sonny Kittel exchanged passes with Bakery Jatta on the edge of the area, and was felled by a stray arm from Kiel right-back Neumann, with the fall looking slightly theatrical on second viewing. Aaron Hunt stepped up to cooly send Gelios the wrong way and score his second penalty in three matches. Neumann almost made amends for his error straight from the restart, marching down the Hamburg left and into the penalty box, only for his cut-back to Fabian Reese being put over by the former Schalke man with the goal at his mercy from a mere six yards out. Just two minutes later in the 24th minute, a breathless opening to the game and Hamburg's comeback was complete, as a lovely ball over the top of the Kiel defence from Rick van Drongelen was perfectly into the path of Tim Leibold. Joel Pohjanpalo was waiting next to the Hamburg left-back, who duly obliged, letting the ball run, drawing Gelios and passing across to the Finn who had the simplest of tasks to tap in from eight yards out. As the time wore on, the pace of the game slowed slightly after a frantic opening 25 minutes, with both sides' exertions from the opening exchanges taking their toll, and the centre-back pairings for both sides seeing more of the ball. But the game was still characterised by the ball changing hands often, and Hamburg looked the most threatening with the ball at their feet, whilst Kiel were just lacking the final pass on a number of dangerous counters.