Match Report
11.08.19
HSV battles into second round with extra-time win over spirited Chemnitz
In Chemnitz HSV had to twice come from behind, eventually settling the game on penalties. Hinterseer and Kittel got on the scoresheet for the Rothosen, before Adrian Fein sunk the crucial spot-kick.
HSV are into the second round of the DFB Pokal. The away side found it difficult for long periods of the game on Sunday (11th August), with the home side determined and well-organised in defence to deny the visitors many clear-cut opportunities. Despite a dominant first-half performance in terms of possession, the teams couldn’t be separated at the break and it was the hosts who took a surprise lead just before the hour-mark with their first real foray into the Hamburg half. Dejan Bozic turned home a penalty given for a debatable handball against Rick van Drongelen, but Lukas Hinterseer answered almost immediately, scoring his first competitive goal for the Rothosen in the process. In a topsy-turvy encounter, the Sky Blues went in front again, as Matti Langer rose highest from a corner to head his team back into the lead, before Sonny Kittel scored his second direct free-kick in a week to level things up once again with a quarter of an hour to play.
Xavier Amaechi’s first appearance for his new employers was perhaps the high point of an extra half-an-hour that failed to spark into life, and as such, the game had to be decided on penalties. After the first five penalty takers had all found the back of the net, Khaled Narey saw his tame effort saved by Jakubov, only for Heuer Fernandes to make amends a few moments later, saving Schoppenhauer’s equally weak attempt. As the shoot-out entered the sudden-death phase, Sören Reddemann sent his spot-kick sailing over the Hamburg bar, giving Adrian Fein the opportunity to send Hamburg through, a chance that the young man gleefully accepted.
Goalless first half
Coach Dieter Hecking showed the sincerity of the task ahead of his team with his starting XI, making only one change from the eleven who dispatched Nuremberg on Monday night. Captain Aaron Hunt did not travel to Chemnitz due to groin problems, with new signing David Kinsombi taking his place at the heart of the midfield and Rick van Drongelen the captain’s armband. Resplendent in the newly unveiled third kit, Kinsombi was in the thick of it in the opening quarter of an hour, seeing his header balloon over the bar and a goal-bound shot blocked at the last minute by Langer.
Similar to the success in Franconia in the league, the Rothosen had most joy down the flanks, with Jan Gyamerah and Tim Leibold overlapping at will, with little defensive responsibility to be talked about. Incisive link-up play from Gyamerah and Jatta saw the ball find Hinterseer on the edge of the 6-yard-area, but his glancing header whistled past the left-hand upright. As the half wore on the hosts warmed to their task, moving as a unit, sitting deep and leaving very few gaps for Hamburg to exploit. Hamburg came the closest to breaking the deadlock on the stroke of half-time, as Kittel found Dudziak on the left-hand edge of the area, but his shot whacked against the right-hand upright to leave the game scoreless heading into the break.
Topsy-turvy second period
With Daniel Heuer Fernandes completely untroubled in the first 45, it came as a surprise to all involved when the hosts took the lead just before the hour-mark. An innocuous-looking effort from Bonga struck van Drongelen on the ribs, only for referee Dr. Kampka to point to the spot and hand the home side a chance to open the scoring. Bozic calmly sent Heuer Fernandes the wrong way to give Chemnitz a lead that had looked unlikely to come from open play. Going behind seemed to spring the away side into life, as the metronomic Fein picked out Hinterseer at the back-post, who brought the ball down neatly on his chest and swivelled and volleyed past Jakubov in one swift movement to net his first goal for the Rothosen.
Just as it looked like HSV would pull away from the third-division side as expected, the Sky Blues once again used a set-piece to put those thoughts to bed. Matti Langer’s powerful header was past Heuer Fernandes before he had a chance to move, and the away side had it all to do yet again. After his first competitive goal for the club on Monday night in Nuremberg, Kittel repeated the trick six days later. A mazy dribble taking on five defenders saw the 26-year-old felled in a promising position 20 yards out just to the left of the D, and the blonde bombshell gave Jakubov no chance, whipping it over the wall and in off the bar right into the top left-hand corner. The final quarter of an hour saw the home side pushed further and further back, but with no clear-cut chances for the second division side to show for the pressure, extra-time was needed.
Fein sinks the deciding penalty
With the end of regulation seeing only one team dominating possession, many expected the extra-time period to only yield one result. Yet the home side confounded expectations again and in fact looked more threatening in the final 30 than they had in the preceding hour-and-a-half, with Bonga in particular making a number of powerful runs and giving the exhausted Tim Leibold a lot to think about going back towards his own goal. The Rothosen weren’t without chances though, and a training ground move saw a Kittel free-kick floated to the edge of the area, only for substitute Khaled Narey’s volley to fly just over the right stanchion. A quick interchange down the left in the final minute of extra-time saw Leibold freed and his square pass found fellow substitute Jairo Samperio waiting on the penalty spot. The Spaniard had the chance to win it with the last kick of the game but his right-footed effort lacked the necessary conviction and the sides still couldn’t be separated after an extra half-an-hour of play.
Both sides showed their quality from the spot, with only Narey and Schoppenhauer missing from the first ten takers, before Reddemann sent his wayward effort high over the bar to open the door for Adrian Fein. The on-loan midfielder coolly slid the ball into the bottom left-hand corner as Jakubov dived the other way to end an evening that had gone on longer than envisaged but had in the end produced the desired result. Whilst relief and joy were the overriding emotions for the visitors, they knew they had been in a classic cup scrap and congratulated their opponents for their fighting performance. For HSV they look to carry on the promising league start on Friday at home to VfL Bochum (kick-off 6:30pm CET).
Game overview
Chemnitzer FC: Jakubov - Reddemann, Sarmov, Schoppenhauer - Itter, Milde (116’ Blumberg), M. Langer (84‘ Bohl), Tob. Müller, Bonga, Garcia (112‘ Tallig) - Bozic (74’ Sturm)
Hamburger SV: Heuer Fernandes - Gyamerah (106‘ Wintzheimer), Jung, van Drongelen, Leibold - Fein, Dudziak (83‘ Jairo), Kinsombi (100‘ Amaechi) - Jatta (72‘ Narey), Hinterseer, Kittel
Goals: 1-0 Bosiz (57‘ p.), 1-1 Hinterseer (61‘) , 2-1 Langer (68‘), 2-2 Kittel (75‘)
Penalties: 3-2 Müller, 3-3 Kittel, 4-3 Sarmov, 4-4 Hinterseer, 5-4 Bonga, 5-4 Narey missed, 5-4 Schoppenhauer missed, 5-5 Wintzheimer, 6-5 Tallig, 6-6 Jairo, 7-6 Itter, 7-7 van Drongelen, 7-7 Reddemann missed, 7-8 Fein
Attendance: 15,000 (sold out)
Referee: Robert Kampka (Mainz)
Yellow cards: Itter (90‘+5) / van Drongelen (56’), Gyamerah (91’), Fein (111’), Leibold (117’)
Red cards: - / -