Sports\Soccer

Freiburg share spoils with Hamburg in German Bundesliga

Xinhua | Updated: 2017-12-02 10:05

Freiburg and Hamburg have shared the spoils following a goalless stalemate at the opener of the 14th round in Bundesliga on Friday.

Both struggling clubs failed to grab a victory, although both were in need of vital points to climb out of the Bundesliga bottom.

Freiburg and Hamburg started highly motivated into the encounter to ensure an evenly balanced opening period.

Freiburg's Christian Guenter created the first chance of the game after rattling the side netting before Hamburg's Aaron Hunt tested goalkeeper Alexander Schwolow from ten meters with 18 minutes played.

As the match progressed, Freiburg took over and tried to take the lead with long-range efforts, which missed the target mostly.

However, the "HSV" ensured the best chance of the first half when youngster Jann-Foete Arp intercepted a return pass but chipped the ball just wide of the target from sharp angle in the 42nd minute.

Freiburg grabbed the better start into the second half as Hamburg's defender Kyriakos Papadopoulos had to scratch Janik Haberer's shot on target off the goal line with 50 minutes into the game.

Three minutes later, the home side celebrated the opener. However, Yoric Ravet's opener was disallowed due to an offside position.

In the closing period, Freiburg kept the upper hand but lacked in accuracy to wrap up a very needed victory against harmless visitors from Hamburg.

"We reached only our minimum target. We were looking for more than one point but we know that Freiburg is very resilient. Freiburg was closer to the lucky punch in the second half," Hamburg's goalkeeper Christian Mathenia said.

With the result, Freiburg remain on the 16th place, which is a relegation play off spot, meanwhile Hamburg continue on the 15th position with a two-point gap to the relegation spots.

The following fixtures are scheduled for Saturday: front-runners Bayern Munich host newly promoted Hannover, Hoffenheim see runner-up Leipzig, Werder Bremen encounter Stuttgart, Bayer Leverkusen clash with Borussia Dortmund, Mainz take on Augsburg and Schalke face Cologne.