Hamburger 2 - 1 Schalke 04: Nicolai Muller and Bobby Wood on target as Hamburg secure overdue win

Posted Wednesday, December 21, 2016 by PA

Hamburg returned to winning ways and moved out of the bottom two with a 2-1 victory against a Schalke side whose form is once again in decline.

Nicolai Muller and Bobby Wood scored the goals for Markus Gisdol's men, who were good value for their win despite conceding a Donis Avdijaj consolation in the last minute.

Neither side came into the game in any sort of form, making for a scrappy match at the Volksparkstadion.

Both sides were disjointed during an opening period which lacked anything resembling a tactical plan, other than to fight for every ball and hope for the best.

Both goalkeepers largely watched on from afar as the challenges took place at a safe distance from their goals and, but for a few efforts from distance, the closest either side came to scoring was when Luca Waldschmidt's shot gave Schalke goalkeeper Ralf Fahrmann something to deal with a minute before the interval.

Hamburg took the lead on the hour mark when Fahrmann could not quite keep out Muller's shot after Schalke had started to gain the upper hand.

Johan Djourou should have doubled their lead in the 76th minute, but his penalty was saved by Fahrmann after Thilo Kehrer had brought Filip Kostic down in the area.

Wood added a long overdue second for the hosts in the 82nd minute with Muller this time the provider, but Hamburg were made to sweat when Avdijaj reduced the arrears from Rahman Baba's cross in the last minute. The Royal Blues could not find an equaliser, though, as they extended their wait for a win to four games.