Sunday, April 12, 2009

Mario Gómez goal sinks Hamburg

After ninety minutes of scoreless action Mario Gómez scored to give VfB a 1-0 victory over Hamburg. With the result die Schwaben extend their winning streak the three matches and are now only three points out of a Champions League spot.

Although the score-line doesn't show it both sides were highly aggressive and attacked at will. For the most part Hamburg were closer in breaking the deadlock early with Croatian international Ivica Olić causing a wealth of problems. As the match entered the final ten minutes the message was clearly "attack" in both directions. Following Roberto Hilbert pounding the ball off the HSV post with nine minutes left with Dennis Aogo doing the same for his side as regulation time ticked away. However the day belonged to Mario Gómez in added-time he volleyed in the winning strike from twelve metres after Frank Rost saved Thomas Hitzlsperger's drive.

Following the match Markus Babbel said of the performance:

"I saw a good game from my team, they battled unyieldingly and were rewarded for that with the late goal. HSV were a very strong opponent, they were well organised and it wasn't at all noticeable that they had just been involved in a UEFA Cup match on Thursday night. Towards the end I didn't feel as if we would get the goal - which made the winner all the nicer! It was tough work out there today."