Hamburg stay top despite Frankfurt draw

Hamburg remained top of the Bundesliga despite a 1-1 draw at Eintracht Frankfurt on Sunday while rivals Bayer Leverkusen were held to a goalless draw by Werder Bremen.

League-leaders Hamburg got an early breakthrough when former Bayern Munich midfielder Ze Roberto netted in the eighth minute, but Frankfurt went into the half-time break all square after defender Marco Russ equalised.

Frankfurt, along with Leverkusen and Hamburg, are still unbeaten and the leaders struggled to break down Eintracht’s stubborn defence.

“We are disappointed,” admitted Hamburg coach Bruno Labbadia.

“That was two points too few.

“We sat back a bit after taking the lead.

“Things were better after half-time, our main problem was that we didn’t have enough penetration in attack, but I am very happy with our attitude.”

Leverkusen remain second and level on points with Hamburg after they picked up a point in the 0-0 draw at home to Bremen.

Hertha Berlin remain rooted to the bottom of the table after they were hammered 4-0 by fellow bottom-three dwellers Freiburg at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium.

Teenage goalkeeper Sascha Burchert had a Bundesliga debut to forget when the 19-year-old leaked three goals before half-time, but his defence did him no favours as they allowed Freiburg’s attack to run riot.

Freiburg’s Croatia midfielder Ivica Banovic was the chief tormentor as he scored the first and last goals to help lift his side up to 11th in the table.

On Saturday, Belgium defender Daniel Van Buyten scored the winner to seal a 2-1 victory over Nuremberg as Bayern Munich picked up their third straight league win which put them third in the table.

The same day Oktoberfest – the Munich beer festival – opened in the south German city, Van Buyten’s winner at the Allianz Arena quenched Bayern’s fans’ thirst for league points.

Striker Ivica Olic had put Bayern ahead before forward Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting threatened to spoil the party in Munich with an equaliser for Nuremberg, but Van Buyten headed the winner.

Having thrown away a 1-0 lead in the Champions League against Rangers on Wednesday in a 1-1 draw, Stuttgart coach Markus Babbel suffered another disappointment when Cologne picked up their first win of the season at the Mercedes-Benz Arena.

Cologne got off to a dream start when striker Sebastian Freis headed his side into the lead after 25 minutes and it was enough to give his side the three points.

Former German international goalkeeper Jens Lehmann was left red-faced after he brought down Cologne’s Manasseh Ishiaku well out of his area, but Wilfried Sanou was on hand to score from 30 metres out to seal a 2-0 win in the dying stages.

Hoffenheim came back from being 2-0 down to seal a 4-2 win over Borussia Moenchengladbach to go fourth, while Bochum were beaten 3-2 at home by Mainz who stay fifth.

Hanover held Dortmund to a 1-1 draw.

On Friday, champions Wolfsburg ended a run of three straight league defeats with a 2-1 win at Schalke as striker Edin Dzeko scored twice.

Wolfsburg were bouyed by a mid-week Champions League debut win over CSKA Moscow and the result leaves the Wolves ninth.