After 45 minutes, it looks like a debacle for Hamburger SV on the 20th match day of the 2nd Bundesliga: The North Germans are clearly behind, but then they repair the bad half-time impressively. The draw against pursuer Heidenheim could be a milestone in the promotion race.
At the end of a turbulent week, Hamburger SV also delivered a spectacular top game in the 2nd Bundesliga. With the accident driver Jean-Luc Dompé in the starting line-up, HSV drew 3:3 (0:3) at direct competitor 1. FC Heidenheim after being 3-0 down. This is an important point for Hamburg in the promotion race. This is how they kept third-placed Heidenheim four points behind. Only 1. FC Kaiserslautern can reduce the gap to the big promotion favorites to three points on Sunday by beating FC St. Pauli.
In front of 15,000 spectators in the sold-out Voith Arena, Jan-Niklas Beste (27th minute) and Jan Schöppner (30th) scored within just three minutes for Heidenheim. Tim Kleindienst scored a third goal before the break (41st). Because the hosts missed several chances to score a fourth goal in the second half, HSV came back through Andras Nemeth (72′), former Heidenheimer Robert Glatzel (79′) and a dream goal from Bakery Jatta (88′).
The morale and the quality of play after the break spoke for the Hamburgers. At times, however, they also showed worrying defensive weaknesses, as they did in the second half of the season against Eintracht Braunschweig (4: 2). The coordination in the defense was missing, the strong wingers of the FCH could not be controlled.
Heidenheim had made a clear statement to HSV before kick-off. Hamburg coach Tim Walter set up Dompé from the start, although the police are investigating him and his teammate William Mikelbrencis on suspicion of illegal car racing. Both were involved in an accident in downtown Hamburg on Monday evening and, according to the club, had left the scene before the police arrived. Dompé drove one of the vehicles, Mikelbrencis was a passenger in a second.
HSV imposed a fine on both of them. Walter justified his decision in a Sport1 interview: “He admitted his mistake and faced the public. He was also sanctioned by us from the club,” he said about Dompé. The Heidenheim CEO Holger Sanwald could not understand that: “It’s a little different here at 1. FC Heidenheim. For us, I would rule out that guys like that play football for us again,” said the 55-year-old on Sky.
