Hamburg beat rock-bottom Hertha Berlin 3-1 in the German capital on Sunday, but still missed out on regaining top spot from new leaders Bayer Leverkusen.
Berlin had confirmed Friedhelm Funkel as their new coach on Saturday, following last week’s sacking of Lucien Favre, and he took immediate charge.
“We started very well, we were competing well and took the lead, but all of those three goals were unbelievable,” said Berlin captain Arne Friedrich. “We just could not recover from those setbacks.”
PHOTO: REUTERS
But the Germany center-back said Funkel is the man to lead Hertha out of trouble.
“He makes a positive impression,” he said.
Hertha got off to a dream start after nine minutes when Germany defender Arne Friedrich headed home a cross from Patrick Ebert at the far post from close range.
It sparked a long run of celebration at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium, but the delight was short lived.
Hertha defender Kaka headed into his own net on 24 minutes and Hamburg added to the home side’s misery when midfielder David Jarolim scored a great goal from 25m out on 38 minutes.
Barely a minute later ex-Bayern Munich midfielder Ze Roberto scored with a long-range effort to make it 3-1 at the break.
Hertha failed to make any impact in the second-half and the result leaves Hamburg second in the table on goal difference behind Leverkusen.
Earlier, Werder Bremen strikers Claudio Pizarro and Aaron Hunt both netted to seal a 2-0 win at VfB Stuttgart which lifted their side up to fourth.
Bremen have only lost one game all season and Thomas Schaaf’s men were rarely troubled by Stuttgart who are now 13th.
“We took another step forward today, the team played well and concentrated from first minute to last on what they had to do,” Schaaf said.
“We had a bit of luck with the early goal, but that is what you need,” he said.
Werder got off to the perfect start when Bosnian-born Germany squad member Marko Marin beat Stuttgart defender Stefano Celozzi and swung in a cross to the far post which ex-Chelsea forward Pizarro headed home on three minutes.
Hunt made sure of the three points when Germany midfielder Mesut Oezil spotted a huge gap in the Stuttgart defense.
Oezil floated his pass and Hunt drove his shot into the bottom right corner on 51 minutes past former Arsenal and Germany goalkeeper Jens Lehmann.
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