Former Germany striker Kevin Kuranyi headed a last-minute goal to seal the 3-3 draw that denied 10-man Hamburg the chance to go top of the Bundesliga on Sunday.
Kuranyi’s 90th-minute header sealed Schalke 04’s fight back from 2-0 down after Hamburg striker Markus Berg had put his side 3-2 up on 80 minutes despite the dismissal of defender David Rozehnal with an hour gone.
“For the fans, it must have been a great game, a feast of football, but for us it was very disappointing,” Hamburg captain Piotr Trochowski said. “We fought back with 10 men to go 3-2 up, so to concede the equalizer right at the end was very hard to take.”
PHOTO: REUTERS
The draw in Schalke keeps Hamburg second in the table behind leaders Bayer Leverkusen, who drew 1-1 with Borussia Dortmund on Friday.
Hamburg opened the scoring when Berg slotted home from 8m out after midfielder Eljero Elia darted down the flank and into the penalty area, before squaring and the Swede drilled his shot home.
Trochowski launched his free-kick from almost 30m out to extend the guests’ lead.
Schalke fought back through Kuranyi’s 50th-minute goal, however, and when Hamburg’s David Rozehnal then brought the striker down when he was through on goal, the Czech defender was shown a straight red on 60 minutes.
Midfielder Lukas Schmitz headed home from the resulting free-kick to equalize on 62 minutes for Schalke to level the scores.
Berg hit his second of the game, however, when midfielder Ze Roberto threaded a pass through the Schalke defense and Berg smashed his shot home with 10 minutes to go, which looked to have fired Hamburg top before Kuranyi broke the guests’ hearts.
Werder Bremen are third after their 4-1 win over VfL Bochum, despite conceding the fastest goal of the season inside a minute as three touches saw Stanislav Sestak put his side ahead.
Bremen fought back, however, with goals from Aaron Hunt, Marko Marin, Tim Borowski and Mesut Oezil.
Earlier, Bundesliga bottom club Hertha Berlin earned their first league point since the opening day of the season when they held defending champions Wolfsburg to a goalless draw at home.
Hertha had lost all eight league games since beating Hannover 1-0 at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium on Aug. 8 and new coach Friedhelm Funkel picked up his first point in charge since replacing Lucien Favre, but his side are still four points from safety.
German Bundesliga
Team | P | GD | PTS | |
1 | Bayer Leverkusen | 10 | 13 | 22 |
2 | Hamburg | 10 | 11 | 22 |
3 | Werder Bremen | 10 | 13 | 21 |
4 | Schalke 04 | 10 | 7 | 20 |
5 | Bayern Munich | 10 | 8 | 18 |
6 | TSG Hoffenheim | 10 | 9 | 17 |
7 | Wolfsburg | 10 | 2 | 17 |
8 | Mainz | 10 | 1 | 17 |
9 | Eintracht Frankfurt | 10 | -2 | 13 |
10 | Borussia Dortmund | 10 | -4 | 13 |
11 | Hannover 96 | 10 | 1 | 12 |
12 | SC Freiburg | 10 | -8 | 10 |
13 | Cologne | 10 | -4 | 9 |
14 | VfB Stuttgart | 10 | -5 | 8 |
15 | Borussia M’gladbach | 10 | -8 | 8 |
16 | Nurnberg | 10 | -8 | 8 |
17 | VfL Bochum | 10 | -11 | 8 |
18 | Hertha Berlin | 10 | -21 | 4 |
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