Hamburg go second despite Stajner´s late penalty

Hamburg bagged a share of second spot in the Bundesliga on Sunday despite Czech Republic striker Jiri Stajner netting a late penalty for Hanover to share the points in a 2-2 draw.

Hamburg were cruising to a 2-1 win to close the gap behind leaders Leverkusen, who beat Eintracht Frankfurt 4-0 on Friday, before Stajner was hauled down with just five minutes left.

The 33-year-old made no mistake with his shot and drilled it past Hamburg goalkeeper Frank Rost to put his side ninth while Hamburg are now three points behind Leverkusen.

The northerners share second spot with neighbours Werder Bremen, who drew 1-1 at home to Dortmund after Argentine Lukas Barrios equalised Mesut Ozil’s opener for Werder.

Hamburg coach Bruno Labbadia admitted that “this is a bad result for us as the team worked hard. I told the ref he bottled it with the penalty decision” which saw Stajner go down in the area before dusting himself off to convert the penalty on 86 minutes to give the home side a share of the points.

Hamburg’s ex-Germany defender Marcell Jansen opened the scoring with a superb opening goal.

The 24-year-old left-back, who is not in the Germany squad for this month’s friendlies, finished the move he started after a neat pass from Dutch midfielder Eljero Elia before drilling his shot into Hanover’s net on 15 minutes.

Hanover’s Ivory Coast striker Didier Ya Konan, who looks set to face Germany in a friendly for his country in Gelsenkirchen on November 18, equalised with a header on 28 minutes.

But Elia put his side back in the lead on 44 minutes when he headed home after some good work from Germany wing Piotr Trochowski only for the late spotkick drama to save Hanover.

Elsewhere Sunday, bottom side Hertha Berlin slid to a 1-0 home loss to Cologne after Slovenian favourite Milivoje Novakovic netted the only goal at the Olympic Stadium.

Hertha, one win all season, are six points from safety while Cologne’s success saw them exit the bottom three.

On Saturday, Schalke 04 left Bayern Munich’s Allianz Arena with a point after a 1-1 draw.

Bayern defender Daniel van Buyten put the hosts ahead at Munich’s Allianz Arena before Schalke’s Joel Matip’s header just before half-time gave his side a point which keeps the Royal Blues fourth while Bayern drop to eighth.

Having seen their Champions League aspirations effectively ended after their 2-0 defeat at home to Bordeaux last Tuesday, Bayern have now dropped further down the German league table leaving coach Louis van Gaal visibly unimpressed.

All is not well at Bayern after both Germany defender Philipp Lahm and Luca Toni were both fined on Sunday for disciplinary reasons.

Lahm was fined for an article in the Sueddeutsche Zeitungen which criticised the club, coach Louis van Gaal and the players, while Toni was disciplined for leaving the stadium during the game after being replaced at half-time.

Hosts Hoffenheim conceded two goals in five second-half minutes to hand Wolfsburg a 2-1 win to go fifth in the table.

Stuttgart’s under-pressure coach Markus Babbel picked up his second point in as many Bundesliga matches after his side’s goalless draw with Borussia Moenchengladbach.

But the result leaves his side 14th in the league and hovering just above the relegation zone.

In the day’s other results, Mainz are up to sixth in the league after their 1-0 win at home to Nuremberg while Freiburg enjoyed a 2-1 win at Bochum.