Match Report

Hinterseer at the double for third win in a row

Lukas Hinterseeer scored both goals of the game as the Rothosen saw off Karlsruher SC by two goals to nil for their third win in a row after the Christmas break.

An efficient second-half showing from the Rothosen was enough to see off a spirited Karlsruhe side on Saturday afternoon (8th February) at a packed-out Volksparkstadion. Dieter Hecking's troops should have had their noses in front before half-time, missing a whole host of chances whilst playing some eye-catching football. After a turgid opening twenty minutes to the second half, Hinterseer struck twice to take his goalscoring tally to nine for the season and seal a deserved three points for the Rothosen.

Sonny Kittel should have done better when one-on-one with Uphoff in the 41st minute, in a frustrating opening 45 minutes for the Rothosen.

Inefficient Rothosen unable to find a way through

Despite the quality of options from the bench, the HSV coaching staff plumped for the same starting line-up as the 3-1 win over Bochum on Monday night, giving some consistency with the same starting XI for the first three games since the Christmas break. Given Karlsruhe's exerts in the cup on Wednesday night, it was no surprise that HSV started the stronger, and it was the ever-dangerous Kittel and Leibold combination down the left that presented the first chance of the game for the Rothosen. Kittel laid into the path of the advancing Dudziak, and the 24-year-old drove into the box and cut back for Louis Schaub on the left-hand edge of the area, who curled a sumptuous effort with his left foot onto the crossbar. The guests reminded their hosts of their presence in the 20th minute, as the Hamburg defensive line was stood too high and Marc Lorenz found himself played in behind and one-on-one with Daniel Heuer Fernandes. The Hamburg 'keeper stood tall and batted Lorenz's effort away to keep the scores level.

The Rothosen were no doubt playing the better football, but were not finding the reward to put away the raft of chances they were afforded to them by the guests. Adrian Fein's right-footed hammer whistled just past Uphoff's right-hand upright, before Jordan Beyer should have headed in from six yards out after a beautiful cross from the right by Jatta. Just before the half-time interval, Timo Letschert played a cheeky first-time reverse-pass into the path of Sonny Kittel, who found himself all alone ten yards out but unable to sort his feet out, so that the resulting left-footed shot was too weak to make its way past Uphoff. All in all a frustrating half for the Rothosen, who played some lovely passing football at times but were lacking that ruthless edge to put their host of chances away.

Lukas Hinterseer was in the right place at the right place on both occasions to get his eight and ninth goals of the campaign.

Hinterseer double seals second home win on the bounce

After an exciting first period, the Rothosen found it increasingly difficult to find their way through the sea of black Karlsruhe shirts that confronted them everytime they had possession. Karlsruhe weren't present at all as an attacking force like they were in the first half, content to sit back and hope to see out the second half without conceding. The plan worked for the first twenty minutes after the restart, with the Hamburg fans becoming increasingly frustrated as passes didn't reach their intended targets and Karlsruhe won the ball back with worrying frequency. It looked like a mistake would open the door for the Rothosen and this proved to be the case in the 67th minute. Karlsruhe defender Carlson did excellently well to deny another whicked Leibold cross and it looked like the danger was cleared. However, Lorenz could only manage to hook his clearance high in the air and to the other side of the six-yard box, where Lukas Hinterseer was waiting to head in from all of four yards out.

In truth, the Rothosen hadn't looked like opening the scoring before that moment, but as soon as they took the lead, Karlsruhe's heads dropped, with tiredness and their lack of belief from a poor run of results starting to kick in. Louis Schaub was desperately unlucky to hit the bar for the second time in the match, as his left-footed volley crashed off the woodwork from 25 yards out. It mattered little as his fellow Austrian Hinterseer doubled his tally for the afternoon in the 81st minute to wrap up proceedings. Bakery Jatta did excellently well to pick up a loose pass in midfield from Karlsruhe, using his pace to drive past Pisot and square for Hinterseer at the back post who had the simplest of tasks to pass in from four yards out for his ninth goal of the season. The second completely killed the game off, with all hope and energy drained from the guests. It was by no means a vintage performance from the Rothosen, ironically with a better showing in the first half without reward than the second that yielded the winning goals. Next up is Hannover 96 next Saturday.

Game overview

Hamburger SV: Heuer Fernandes - Beyer, Letschert, van Drongelen, Leibold - Fein (53' Jung) - Schaub (81' Kinsombi), Dudziak (73' Hunt) - Jatta, Hinterseer, Kittel
Karlsruher SC: Uphoff - Stiefler, Kobald, Pisot, Carlson - Gondorf, Groiß - Camoglu (75' Ben-Hatira), Wanitzek, Lorenz - Hofmann (69' Gueye)
Goals: 1-0 Hinterseer (67'), 2-0 Hinterseer (81')
Attendance: 49,581
Referee: Bastian Dankert (Rostock)
Yellow cards: Beyer (51') / Hofmann (43')
Red cards: . / .