Hertha BSC Berlin 3 : 0 Hamburger - Hertha end Hamburg resurgence

Posted Sunday, October 26, 2014 by PA

Hamburg's recent mini resurgence was brought to an abrupt end on Saturday as they crashed to a 3-0 defeat to Hertha Berlin at the OIympiastadion.

A second-half brace from former Hamburg midfielder Anis Ben-Hatira, either side of a John Heitinga goal, earned Jos Luhukay's men the win as the Old Lady put some daylight between themselves and the bottom three.

Hamburg, in contrast, missed the chance to move out of the relegation zone in view of Borussia Dortmund's defeat to Hannover, suffering instead a setback which will also dent morale when it seemed they had turned the corner.

Buoyed by recent results, which included a win at Dortmund, Hamburg were quick out of the blocks and showing the kind of confidence they did not seem to have for the first five games of the season.

Pierre-Michel Lasogga went close to scoring against his former club within 30 seconds while Nicolai Muller could not find any takers for his dangerous cross soon after.

Their early promise soon evaporated, though, with Hertha coming more and more into the game and they saw Anis Ben-Hatira denied by Jaroslav Drobny.

Marcel Ndjeng then hit the crossbar with a shot from distance as Hertha started to take more of the initiative in the second half.

Marcell Jansen could have put Hamburg in front just before the hour mark, but no sooner had he been denied by Thomas Kraft, the hosts were already on the break with Hajime Hosogai squaring for Ben-Hatira, who took the ball past Drobny before tucking it in.

Heitinga made it two in the 65th minute when Hosogai's shot hit the post and came out to the former Atletico Madrid and Everton defender, who could not really miss from a yard out.

After that goal went in, there was only going to be one winner of this game.

Hamburg's heads dropped, as was often the case under Josef Zinnbauer's predecessor Mirko Slomka, and Hertha controlled proceedings at a stroll.

They added a third five minutes from time with Per Skjelbred sending Ben-Hatira through, and he once again kept his cool to beat Drobny in a one-on-one situation.