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Jol happy as Hamburg reclaim top berth
AFP
Monday 20 October 2008
Germany winger Piotr Trochowski
scored his second consecutive goal of the week as Hamburg
went back to the top of the Bundesliga with a 1-1 draw
at home to Schalke 04 on Sunday.
Hoffenheim had briefly knocked Hamburg from top spot
on Saturday with a 5-2 win over Hanover, but Hamburg's
draw with Schalke gave Martin Jol's side the single
point needed to go top.
"We are back at the top again, which is pleasing,
but with a bit of luck we could have won the game,"
said Jol.
"It would have been easier
if we had scored two goals in the first half and taken
our chances.
"After the break we couldn't exert any pressure
on Schalke, that is something I am not happy about and
is something we need to work on."
Fresh from scoring the winner in Germany's 1-0 win
over Wales in their World Cup qualifier in midweek,
Trochowski used his deadly right-foot to great effect
again when he fired home on 29 minutes.
But Schalke 04 levelled just three minutes after the
break when 20-year-old defender Benedikt Hoewedes got
on the end of a freekick from Jefferson Farfan to head
past Hamburg goalkeeper Frank Rost.
There was plenty of vocal support from Schalke fans
when Royal Blues striker Kevin Kuranyi was substituted
on 62 minutes in his first appearance since walking
out on Germany the week before during the 2-1 win over
Russia.
Hamburg should have taken the lead seconds later when
substitute Mladen Petric smashed his shot straight onto
the post and could only watch as the ball rebounded
to safety.
The draw leaves Hamburg a point clear on 17 points
with Schalke sixth in the table.
On Saturday, Germany striker Miroslav Klose struck
just four minutes from time to give defending champions
Bayern Munich a 1-0 win over Karlsruhe - their first
victory in four league games.
Klose converted Italian defender Massimo Oddo's cross
on 86 minutes to give Jurgen Klinsmann's side three
points for the first time this month despite another
unimpressive performance which leaves Bayern 11th.
With Bayern facing Fiorentina in the Champions League
on Tuesday, Klinsmann badly needed this result.
"We've failed to perform in our last two or three
league games, but we're playing twice this week and
it was good to start the sequence with an away win,"
said the ex-Germany coach.
Hoffenheim finish the weekend second in the table after
a flurry of late goals saw them seal a 5-2 victory at
ten-man Hanover.
Two goals from Vedad Ibisevic led the charge and made
the Bosnian and Herzegovina striker the league's top
scorer with nine so far this season.
Bayer Leverkusen moved up one place to third thanks
to their 2-0 win at Eintracht Frankfurt, the bottom
side.
Striker Patrick Helmes scored his eighth league goal
of the season when he converted a penalty after just
six minutes and a 61st minute header from Chilean midfielder
Arturo Vidal sealed the win.
VfB Stuttgart drop from third to seventh after losing
2-1 in the German capital with Hertha Berlin, who move
up to fourth.
Wolfsburg picked up their first league win for nearly
a month as midfielder Zvjezdan Misimovic netted first-half
goals as the home side routed Arminia Bielefeld 4-1
to put Felix Magath's side fifth in the league from
ninth.
Ten-man Energie Cottbus lost 1-0 at Cologne to stay
in the bottom three while Dortmund scored in injury
time to seal a 3-3 draw at Werder Bremen.
On Friday, Borussia Moenchengladbach, who have former
Nuremberg coach Hans Meyer at the helm, picked up their
first point in five games when they drew 2-2 at VfL
Bochum.
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