Friendly

HSV draw 1-1 with Aarhus GF in friendly

On Thursday, Hamburger SV played out a 1-1 draw in their friendly match against Danish top-flight side Aarhus GF in the pouring Hamburg rain.

As is usually the case, HSV utilised the opportunity that the mid-October international break presents to take part in a friendly match. On this occasion, they faced Aarhus GF, currently residing in fifth spot in the Danish first division, on Thursday (10th October). At the end of 90 minutes of action in the pouring rain in Hamburg, the game concluded in a 1-1 draw that appeared fair on the balance of play. Steffen Baumgart was also able to use this chance to give significant minutes on the pitch to those players who had not seen much in the way of match action so far this season, such as Lucas Perrin, Lukasz Poreba and Levin Öztunali.

Bakery Jatta put HSV 1-0 ahead with goalscoring legend Horst Hrubesch watching on.

Bakery Jatta was also back in action from the start, featuring for the first time since recovering from his ligament tear. Following a first half that saw little in the way of goalscoring opportunities, although the Danes slightly edged it, Jatta was the player to hand Hamburg the lead after the restart. After a one-two with the ever-industrious Ludovit Reis, he caught everyone by surprise when he finished from an acute angle, squeezing the ball inside the near post with around an hour played to make it 1-0. “I am pleased to have finally been able to get back out on the pitch with the boys and the fact I also scored obviously makes me really happy,” said Jatta. Besides back-to-back chances for Davie Selke and then Ransford Königsdörffer in the first period, this was the most threatening moment going forward for HSV, who had particular control of the game and of possession during the second half. However, ten minutes after Jatta put the side ahead, AGF hit back through centre-forward Patrick Mortensen, whose header levelled the game at 1-1.

Young attacking talent Otto Stange was involved in a lot of the play and won a penalty for HSV in the 80th minute.

Nevertheless, Baumgart’s side retained their rhythm and would have surely gone 2-1 ahead with ten minutes to play through substitute Otto Stange if he had not been denied via a foul. However, the resulting penalty was blazed high and wide to the right of the goal by Robert Glatzel, initiating what was to be an unfortunate closing phase of the game for both the team and him personally. Five minutes before the final whistle, Glatzel was played through on goal by William Mikelbrencis, set up for a potential winner when he suddenly pulled up from his sprint, before having to exit the match with his thigh bandaged up. “Robert triggered something in that moment which is obviously annoying but we cannot begin to speculate, just simply wait for his test results,” said head coach Baumgart after the match, which he rather viewed with positivity. “The team took the friendly very seriously, which was really good to see. We were also able to give a lot of players minutes, remain focused on the way we do things and keep a high level of intensity. We certainly would have liked to have won, which scoring the penalty would have enabled, but that is not as important. Much more so is that the boys approached this assignment well against a good opponent and implemented the instructions we gave them.”

Hamburger SV: Raab - Hadzikadunic (74' Heyer), Perrin (85' Bornschein), Katterbach (61' Oliveira) - Jatta (61' Mikelbrencis), Öztunali, Poreba (61' Sillah), Reis, Dompe (46' Richter) - Königsdörffer (74' Stange), Selke (46' Glatzel, 85' Kilo)

Goals: 1-0 Jatta (59'), 1-1 Mortensen (70')