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For the second round in a row, the ambitious "Hamburger" footballers failed to achieve victory this year. Without their attacking leader Orlando R. van der Vaart, the port city club played 1-1 against "Borussia" away.
Compared to the lineup in the previous round, there were two changes in the "Borussia" team - the young N. Sahin replaced M. Brzenska in the starting lineup, and D. Buckley took S. Kehl's place. In the "Hamburger" ranks, in addition to the aforementioned R. van der Vaart, defender G. Demel did not play due to disqualification. In the first half, the host team stood out with D. Odonkor, who was active on the right side. "Hamburger" had opportunities with E. Mpenza and R. Klingbeil, but the visitors failed to score and the half ended goalless.
The first goal came at the beginning of the second half, when C. Metzelder headed the ball into the visitors' goal from D. Odonkor's cross. By the way, this was only the second goal in 82 matches for the "Borussia" team. Shortly after, a "Hamburger" player almost scored an own goal - to the delight of the "Hamburger" fans, the visitors were saved by the crossbar. The port city footballers equalized in the 74th minute, when P. Trochowski sent the ball into the bottom corner of R. Weidenfeller's goal from the edge of the penalty area. At the end of the match, both teams had a few more chances, but neither team was able to score and the match ended in a draw.
In another match, "Bayer" played at home to a "Stuttgart" team that has not been particularly impressive despite good results so far. The hosts took the lead after about an hour of play - T. Barnetta scored. However, the Leverkusen club failed to maintain their advantage and in the 72nd minute, "Stuttgart" player D. Ljuboja equalized from eleven meters. After these draws, both teams have twelve points and share places in the middle of the table.
Sunday's match statistics:
1 - 1
58` [1 - 0] Christoph Metzelder
74` [1 - 1] Piotr Trochowski
1 - 1
56` [1 - 0] Tranquillo Barnetta
72` [1 - 1] Danijel Ljuboja
