HSV claim a commanding 3-0 win over Hertha

2-0 lead after VAR denies HSV of a goal and a penalty... 

It was another 57,000-strong crowd present at Saturday evening’s prime-time match between Hamburger SV and Hertha BSC as the Volksparkstadion sold out for the tenth game in a row. Although both sets of fans were giving their teams plenty of encouragement from the stands, nothing of note was happening on the pitch. Both sides made a compact start to proceedings, with the majority of the first ten minutes of the game taking place in midfield, which of course meant a lack of goal-scoring opportunities. It was only after a quarter of an hour that the game between “die Rothosen” and “the Old Lady” started to get going. Miro Muheim’s fearsome long-range effort marked the start of a dominant phase of the game for HSV, which would continue until the end of the half. 

The next noteworthy moment came in the 18th minute: had HSV taken the lead or not? Jonas Meffert tried a speculative acrobatic effort that crashed onto Hertha’s crossbar from the right-hand side of the six-yard box, and the ball then fell to the perfectly positioned Robert Glatzel on the rebound to tap in. However, VAR would then intervene, because Meffert was actually offside in the build-up, therefore the goal was chalked off. Just three minutes later, Toni Leistner mistimed his challenge on Glatzel and conceded a penalty. Once again, this gilt-edged opportunity for the home side to take the lead was revoked by VAR because Laszio Benes handled the ball earlier on in the move. HSV didn’t show much frustration following these two events, though, and continued to push forward, now in total control of the game. The capital-city side were only rarely found playing in HSV’s half. 

A more than deserved opening goal finally came HSV’s way in the 38th minute. After getting on the end of a long ball from Heuer Fernandes, Glatzel drove into the penalty area and laid it across to Bakery Jatta, who was in plenty of space and able to fire the ball into the far corner. There was no VAR intervention on this occasion. HSV found a second goal during first-half injury time. Palko Dardai handled the ball in the box, resulting in a penalty for the hosts, and Laszlo Benes coolly slotted it home to double the lead going into the break, nothing more than HSV deserved.