Jose Paolo Guerrero’s late strike was enough to give Hamburg SV a 1-0 win at Cologne to overtake the hosts and go 10th in the Bundesliga on Sunday.
Guerrero scored in the 88th minute after Mladen Petric sent the ball over the Cologne defense for the Peru striker to shrug off a defender and chip goalkeeper Michael Rensing from a tight angle.
Both sides had looked unlikely to score before that, with off-field action claiming most of the attention after Cologne fined injured striker Lukas Podolski for telling a newspaper “much was promised and little delivered” at the club.
Photo: AFP
Cologne’s Martin Lanig had the ball in the net in the 62nd minute, but the midfielder’s celebrations were short-lived as his headed goal was ruled out for offside.
Petric should have done better shortly afterwards when he hooked the ball over with only Rensing to beat and the Croatian striker missed an even better chance in the 73rd minute when he fired wide after Guerrero played him through.
Guerrero then set Dennis Aogo free in the 83rd minute, but Rensing denied the Hamburg defender when he seemed certain to score.
Guerrero finally settled the issue with his sixth goal of the season.
“We fought to the end. It was important and it paid off,” Hamburg coach Thorsten Fink said.
It was the first — and only — goal of the day in the Bundesliga, after Augsburg and Nuremberg played out a 0-0 draw earlier, a result that suited neither team in their struggle against relegation.
“We knew it would be a hard season. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that we’re struggling,” said Nuremberg coach Dieter Hecking, who nevertheless saw the positive side of the draw. “We’ve kept a direct rival at a distance.”
The first half was one of hard tackles and few chances, and the game only came to life in the last 15 minutes, when Alexander Esswein fired wide for Nuremberg, before Simon Jentzsch then denied the Nuremberg striker with a fine save.
Augsburg’s winter signing, Koo Ja-choel, had a shot that was pushed onto the crossbar by Nuremberg goalkeeper Raphael Schaefer in the final minutes, when both sides also had penalty appeals turned down.
Augsburg remain second from bottom of the table, while Nuremberg are two places above the relegation playoff place.
“We can only get further with wins,” Augsburg coach Jos Luhukay said. “We need three points there, where we are.”
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
Marcus Rashford’s first goals for Aston Villa on Sunday inspired a 3-0 win against Preston North End that sent his side into the FA Cup semi-finals for the first time in 10 years. Rashford struck twice in the second half at Deepdale to end Preston’s stubborn resistance before Jacob Ramsey wrapped up Villa’s long-awaited return to the last four. Villa are to face Crystal Palace — 3-0 winners at Fulham on Saturday — in the semi-finals at Wembley Stadium in London. Revitalized since joining Villa on loan from Manchester United during the January transfer window, Rashford is beginning to show the form that
RSS