Gojko Kacar grabbed a crucial point for Hamburger SV in their quest for survival. Bruno Labbadia’s side, who had won each of their previous two league games, drew 1-1 with fellow strugglers SC Freiburg on matchday 32. It’s still all to play for at the bottom of the Bundesliga table.
Kacar grabbed the winner last time out against Mainz and is hitting form at just the right time. HSV remain 14th in the table for the time being thanks to the point. They had fallen behind in the 25th minute as a result of Admir Mehmedi’s goal.
A point doesn’t really do much for either side – Paderborn and Hannover could overtake both sides with victory. Mehmedi’s goal marked an unwanted milestone for HSV – they are the first Bundesliga side to concede 2,500 goals in the competition.
“We need to keep up our good recent form,” explained Labbadia ahead of the game. He selected Lewis Holtby and Zoltan Stieber in place of injured duo Ivo Ilicevic and Nicolai Müller. HSV started anxiously and looked anxious in the opposition half, which meant that chances were few and far between early on.
Mehmedi opens the scoring
Klaus had the first real chance of the game. Chaos in the home area saw the ball fall at the feet of the 22-year-old but his close range effort was tipped to safety by René Adler in the 18th minute. Adler was left helpless seven minutes later by Mehmedi, who put the visitors in front.
HSV could have been in front shortly before that moment but Roman Bürki did well to keep out Stieber. The hosts improved after the break and looked the more dangerous side, but were wasteful in front of goal. Freiburg looked destined to pick up three morale boosting points but in injury time Kacar headed home a close range equaliser.