Football United

HSV beat the red hot Bundesliga title favourites Bayern Munich 2-1 in their own back yard on Saturday afternoon (4.3.06). Guy Demel put the visitors ahead on 16 minutes with his first ever Bundesliga goal. Veteran midfielder Mehmet Scholl scored a classy equaliser for Bayern on 83 minutes. A minute from the end, new signing Nigel de Jong headed home what turned out to be a deserved winner for HSV. Thomas Doll was without the suspended Daniel van Buyten and Raphael Wicky as well as the injured Ailton and Stefan "Paule" Beinlich for the game which saw top placed Bayern Munich entertain third placed HSV.



Defender Bastian Reinhardt was in the squad but did not play because of a lack of match practice. Dutch midfield master Rafael van der Vaart started his first game for HSV since breaking his foot last year. Bayern coach and former HSV hero Felix Magath was without Roque Santa Cruz , Owen Hargreaves, Bixente Lizarazu and his striker who scored twice in Frankfurt in round 23 Paolo Guerrero.

HSV begin strongly
Bayern had won all of their 19 bundesliga matches inside their superb Allianz Arena before their arch rivaly HSV came to town on Saturday. As usual, the stadium was filled to the brim with 69,000 and great excitement greeted the teams as they took to the pitch. HSV made the better start on a pitch which was one step short of being classed unplayable because of blizzard like conditions. Despite that fact, it took only 40 second for the home side to fire a warning shot in HSV’s direction as Pizarro fired in a show which went narrowly wide of Stefan Wächter’s right hand post. Whoever expected an all out assault by the reigning Bundesliga champions and cup holders was to be disappointed, because HSV took hold of the game and waited for a chance to counter attack. That early chance by Pizarro, turned out to be the only Bayern chance during the first half, so solid was HSV at the back.



Deserved opening goal
HSV’s aggresive approach was to bear fruit on 16 minutes as Guy Demel latched onto a ball at the near post after Ballack had only partially cleared a corner. The HSV defender fired in a cross cum shot which fooled Kahn in the Bayern goal and Demel ran off celebrating his first ever Bundesliga goal in 47 appearances. The lead was well deserved as HSV produced a compact display in Munich. They could have gone further ahead had first Piotr Trochowski (23.) and Naohiro Takahara (42.) made more of their chances. The Hamburg side took a well deserved one goal lead into the break with them.

Cauldron of emotion
Felix Magath brought on Ali Karimi and Bastian Schweinsteiger for Deisler and Salihamidzic at the start of the second half. It was a move which wasn’t to change things much for Bayern, at least not until the 60th minute.., as the home side began to create some pressure. A free kick by the newly introduced Mehmet Scholl went close, and after that it was at times end to end stuff. On 71 minutes Jarolim should have done better but allowed Kahn to easily save his weak shot. Eight minutes later, Wächter produced a top drawer save to deny a spectacular effort by Pizarro.

End to end stuff
Ballack threatened with a header, before Lucio cleared for Bayern in the nick of time moments later. On 81 minutes, Sergej Barbarez could have put the game beyond Bayern but failed to do so after fine approach work by Takahara. That miss was to prove costly, because Bayern drew level just 60 seconds later. Scholl scored with a fabulous volley and it looked like the game would either end in a draw, or Bayern would nick a winner at the death as they have done so often this season.



Nigel de Jong at the death!
Only a point for HSV? No way! A minute before the end of the game Nigel de Jong scored his first goal for HSV to dent the masses of travelling fans into raptures of joy. Moments later the referee blew for time and the HSV bench exploded onto the pitch to celebrate the first victory away to Bayern for 24 years!

Bayern Munich: Kahn - Sagnol, Lucio, Ismael, Lahm - Demichelis - Salihamidzic (46. Schweinsteiger), Deisler (46. Karimi, 61.Scholl), Ballack - Makaay, Pizarro

HSV: Wächter - Mahdavikia, Demel, Boulahrouz, Atouba - de Jong - Trochowski (90. Reinhardt), Jarolim, van der Vaart (67. Klingbeil) - Barbarez, Takahara (87. Fillinger)

Goals: 0-1 Demel (16.), 1-1 Scholl (83.), 1-2 de Jong (89.)



Source: HSV.de

BUNDESLIGA

Pos. Team Pld Pts
1. Bayern Munchen 24 58
2. Bremen 24 50
3. Hamburg 24 50
4. Schalke 24 48
5. Stuttgart 24 33