Hrgota snatches late point for Gladbach at Hamburg
February 22, 2015
Hamburg and Gladbach played out a 1-1 draw on Sunday for a result which does little to help the Bundesliga aspirations of either club with two-thirds of the season now completed.
Swedish substitute Branimir Hrgota rescued a point for Gladbach with virtually the last kick of the match after Zoltan Stieber had put the home side in front late on.
Gladbach coach Lucien Favre made six changes from the team which lost 1-0 at Sevilla in the Europa League in midweek, while his opposite number Josef Zinnbauer could cite shell-shock rather than travel fatigue as the reason for picking seven players who were spared the full force of Bayern's 8-0 trouncing last time out.
The fresh legs however did nothing for a drab game which produced little to entertain another 50,000+ crowd in the Imtech Arena.
Gladbach made the livelier start to the match. On four minutes Patrick Herrmann made a run down the left and centred for Max Kruse, but the striker could not keep his shot down. Herrmann then hit the post with his next touch a minute later, when meeting Julian Korb's cross.
Hamburg pressed more as the half wore on. On 20 minutes Dennis Diekmeier drove a ball across the face of goal for the home side after Ivica Olic worked an opening.
Olic, however, was clearly struggling with the upper thigh injury which had curtailed his involvement in the Bayern defeat, and, in what prove to be a positive substitution for the home side, the Croatian veteran was replaced after 25 minutes by Latvian Artjoms Rudnevs.
Stieber strike looked like winner
The home fans had to wait until 72 minutes for the opener. An interception in defense from Rajkovic released Rudnevs and the substitute drove forward, playing a simple pass to Stieber who curled past Yann Sommer from 22 meters.
Hamburg pressed forward for a second goal to kill the game off, as Gladbach searched for an equalizer.
Substitute Thorgan Hazard curled an 81st minute free-kick on to the roof of the net for the visitors while Kruse appeared to have squandered the best chance when firing at Jarolsav Drobny after working himself into a scoring position with only one minute left.
There would be one more chance for Gladbach, and this time Branmir Hrgota climbed highest on a 92nd-minute corner to send a powerful header into the net with Drobny surely left unsighted by the presence of Raffael on the line.
Gladbach moved to within seven points of second place before the evening kick-off in Wolfsburg, while Hamburg remained in 14th and with only a two-point cushion on the bottom three.
Wolfsburg beat Hertha Berlin 2-1 in the later game on Sunday.