4//22/2006
hsv.de

HSV lost 0-2 at home to Bayer Leverkusen in round 31 of the Bundesliga on Saturday afternoon. A sell out crowd in the AOL Arena saw the visitors score a goal in each half to give HSV their 4th home defeat of the season. It was coach Thomas Doll's side's first defeat in 7 matches.

Major omissions

HSV coach Thomas Doll had a major handicap to deal with ahead of the hotly-anticipated clash between the two best Bundesliga sides since the winter break: Skipper Daniel van Buyten, Stefan Beinlich, Nigel de Jong and Raphael Wicky all missed out through injury. The promising youngsters Mario Fillinger and Alex Laas were also missing through injury, so there was a space on the HSV subs bench. Luckily for Doll, midfielder David Jarolim and defender Guy Demel were able to shake off their slight knock to make the starting line-up. His Leverkusen counterpart Michael Skibbe was only without his Brazilian duo of Roque Junior and Athirson, apart from those omissions, Skibbe was able to pick his side from a full strength squad.

Unlucky in front of goal

The game began at a furious pace with HSV pinning the visitors in their own penalty area. On 7 minutes, Ailton almost put HSV ahead as a superb through ball by Barbarez sent the Brazilian into the left hand side of the Leverkusen area, from where he looked on in horror as his shot came back off a post with the Leverkusen keeper Butt well beaten. The Brazilian on-loan striker should have put that chance away, because Leverkusen took the lead moments later with their first attack of the game… Berbatov showed brilliant skills as he put the ball on a silver plartte for Rolfes inside the HSV area, from where he scored with a well struck shot to give his side the lead against the run of play.

Butt comes back to haunt HSV

HSV was by no means shocked by the early setback on the contrary. They went at Leverkusen like a side possessed and created so many chances that they should have led 3 or 4-1 at half time. As it was, the ball simply refused to cross the Leverkusen line, mainly because of the world class goalkeeping display produced by the former HSV keeper Jörg Butt between the Leverkusen posts. Butt thwarted HSV time and time again, with a string of breathtaking saves.

Just not to be…

Butt denied Ailton (10.), and then Benny Lauth (17.), before both players had fluffed a double chance. Lady luck just wouldn’t smile on HSV at all on Saturday. The capacity crowd looked on in astonishment as the chances created by the home side went begging time and time again. Mehdi Mahdavikia saw a shot scraped off the line by Nowotny and the Iranian winger also went close just before the break, as Butt denied the Iranian winger twice in as many minutes.

0-2 down despite total dominance

HSV continued their total domination after the break, but as was the case during the first 45 minutes, luck was against them. Butt somehow fished a Barbarez effort out of his top right hand corner on 59 minutes. The longer the game progressed, the more Leverkusen seemed to fancy their chances. Leverkusen mounted a counter attack on 77 minutes which put the game beyond HSV. Paul Freier rounded off a fine move by the visitors to leave the home crowd scratching their heads. Match statistics showed that HSV had an amazing 33 shots on goal as opposed to 11 by Leverkusen. In the end though the game ended in defeat for HSV, and no statistics can change that bitter fact.

Match details:

HSV: Kirschstein – Mahdavikia, Reinhardt, Boulahrouz, Atouba – Demel, Jarolim (78. Klingbeil), Trochowski (62. Takahara) – Barbarez – Ailton, Lauth

Bayer Leverkusen: Butt – Fritz, Juan, Nowotny, Stenman – Ramelow, Rolfes, Barnetta (87. Castro), Freier (84. Babic), Schneider – Berbatov

Goals: 0-1 Rolfes (8.), 0-2 Freier (77.)

Attendance: 57,000 (Sold out)

Referee: Lutz Wagner (Hofheim)

Yellow cards: Mahdavikia, Barbarez / Ramelow, Juan, Rolfes