Complete team performance as HSV return to winning ways

Dieter Hecking made three changes from the team that had succumbed to the first loss of the season against Pauli on Monday night, with Jeremy Dudziak, Aaron Hunt and Martin Harnik taking the place of Khaled Narey, David Kinsombi and Bakery Jatta in the Rothosen’s usual 4-2-3-1 formation. The game started as it would mean to continue, with a chipped ball in behind from Rick van Drongelen finding Aaron Hunt, but the captain’s cut-back just evaded Martin Harnik at the far post with barely two minutes having been played. After a strong opening five from the hosts, the game began to slow down, with a number of niggly fouls from Aue and imprecise passes from HSV disrupting the flow of the game. The first incisive move of the match from the hosts saw right-back Josha Vagnoman given far too much space from a Sonny Kittel throw-in down the right-hand side in the 18th minute. The 18-year-old drove inside, neatly scooping past his man before hitting a sweet left-footed effort from the right-hand edge of the box, which deflected off a defender and past Martin Männel, with the Aue ‘keeper helplessly wrong-footed.

Soon after Aue made their first real foray forward, with a curling ball from Pascal Testroet finding Jan Hochscheidt alone ten yards out from goal, but the Violet’s winger couldn’t get much power behind his header and Daniel Heuer Fernandes in the Hamburg goal was equal to his effort. After Hochscheidt’s chance the game fell back into its old pattern, with Adrian Fein and Jeremy Dudziak dictating the pace in midfield and thwarting any attempts by the away side to get back into the game. Dirk Schuster’s team were still struggling to contain van Drongelen’s long balls and it was another of these that saw Dieter Hecking’s men double their lead on 32 minutes. The Dutchman’s pinpoint ball over the top found Martin Harnik in behind the Violet’s defence and the Austrian winger laid it across to his fellow countryman Lukas Hinterseer on the volley, with the 28-year-old making no mistake and firing past the helpless Männel. A robust approach from Aue had led to a number of niggly fouls in the opening half an hour, and Christoph Daferner was lucky not to receive his marching orders after catching Jeremy Dudziak very late from behind, seeing yellow from referee Reichel. The away side had still not heeded the warnings of letting van Drongelen ping passes from deep, and another pinpoint effort found Martin Harnik’s perfectly-timed run yet again but the Austrian’s ball this time was just in front of the waiting Aaron Hunt. With the final chance of the half having been passed up, Reichel blew the whistle to end a very promising half from the home side.