HSV play out goalless draw against Elversberg

…but no goals

The second half picked up where the first left off: with two chances in quick succession. Directly after the restart, Sahiti found himself in a promising position and looked destined to give the hosts the lead, before Pinckert put in a last-ditch tackle and deflected his effort away from danger. The resulting corner found Selke at the back post, but he couldn’t test the opposition goalkeeper. Around 15 minutes later, captain Reis neutralised a threat on the HSV goal by winning possession back just as his opposite number Fellhauer was lining up a shot. Directly afterwards, it was once again up to Heuer Fernandes to preserve his clean sheet and the Rothosen’s shot stopper got his hands to Asllani’s shot on goal. Polzin made his first changes around the hour mark, first bringing on Königsdörffer for Karabec, before making a triple substitution a few minutes later. Schonlau replaced Hadzikadunic, who looked to have picked up a shoulder injury, and pulled on the captain’s armband. Richter and Mebude took the places of Reis and Sahiti to try and make an impact on a completely even game.

Just after coming off the bench, Richter hit the woodwork for the umpteenth time this season. He was left cursing his luck in the 78th minute, as his venomous strike from the edge of the box smashed against the bar. The fans would have surely been ready to celebrate four minutes later, too, but the visitors managed to scramble Selke’s header off the line (82’). It would be the masked man’s last action in the game before he sprinted to the sideline and offered some motivating words for strike partner Glatzel. The Volksparkstadion enthusiastically welcomed the reigning 2. Liga top scorer to the pitch and had been trying to suck the ball into the net for a while by that point. The Rothosen, spurred on by their fans, looked to force a winner in the six minutes of added time, but ultimately couldn’t break the deadlock against SV Elversberg, who have only conceded eight away goals away from home all season. Sharing the spoils with Elversberg means that HSV are still the only professional team in Germany who ate unbeaten at home this season.