Hamburg regained top spot

Hamburg regained top spot

Hamburg reclaimed top spot in the Bundesliga with a 1-0 win over Bayern Munich, who slipped down to sixth in the table.

Mladen Petric scored the only goal of the game in the 72nd minute thanks to an assist from former Bayern winger Ze Roberto.

Hamburg were good value for their win, which ended Bayern's three-game winning streak at a sell-out HSV-Arena.

Bayern coach Louis van Gaal included both Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben in his starting XI for the first time this season as part of seven alterations to the team which defeated Rot Weiss Oberhausen in the DFB-Pokal in midweek.

Hamburg coach Bruno Labbadia had also left several first-team regulars out of his side in midweek as they were eliminated from the cup by third division opponents Osnabruck.

David Jarolim, Piotr Trochowski, Jerome Boateng and Eljero Elia were all back in his side.

Ribery and Robben combined for the first time in the 11th minute with the latter placing his shot just inches wide of the far post.

Robben was proving to be a handful for the home defence as Bayern set a high tempo early on.

But they were unable to find the back of the net and Hamburg grew in confidence the longer they were able to keep their guests at bay.

Their first chance arrived on the half-hour mark when Hans-Jorg Butt had to stretch to make a fingertip save to deny Boateng.

From the resulting corner, Joris Mathijsen tested Butt once again and the Bayern goalkeeper made another impressive stop.

Butt was the busier of the two goalkeepers and he had to make further stops from Mathijsen and Petric as the home side, buoyed by a supportive crowd, increased the pressure.

They were rewarded in the 72nd minute when Ze Roberto, who spent six years with Bayern, dribbled his way to the byline from where he crossed low to the far post to give Petric an easy tap-in for the winning goal.