Eintracht Frankfurt forced the most out of Hamburger SV but in the end fell 1-0 to the fourth-place club. Die Adler supporters can stand proud with the performance as they did not give a ball up without a challenge and show intense desire to bring home points. While the Martin Jol-led Hamburg side controlled much of the possession they were consistently disappointed with Die Adler intensity and defending prowess. It is not appropriate to single-out one player it such a strong defensive effort but clearly much credit is owing to Michael Fink, Markus Steinhöfer, Mehdi Mahdavikia and former Japanese capped Junichi Inamoto for a courageous performance that choked off most scoring chances before they could enter a more dangerous phase. With Friedhelm Funkel's tactical plan obvious to assault on the counter, Hamburg grew wary and with a raised eyebrow was cautious going forward. Yet the goal line was finally broken just before the hour as Piotr Trochowski's cross was headed-in by a diving Mladen Petrić. Nikos Liberopoulos had a late opportunity to bring the match even but it unfortunately the effort fell short and the match ended with a 1-0 deficit.While disappointment is natural with a defeat, this should not be the case as Die Adler played brilliantly and in-consideration of the enormous injuries we can look forward to the second half of the season.
