Borussia Dortmund\u00a0suffered another blow to their Bundesliga title hopes on Saturday as they were beaten 1-0 at home by\u00a0Hamburg.<\/p>\n
Pierre-Michel Lasogga opened his account for the season with the only goal of the game 10 minutes before half-time on Saturday to send Dortmund crashing to a third defeat in a four-game winless league streak.<\/p>\n
The 22-year-old was instrumental in keeping Hamburg in the Bundesliga last term and was also on target in a 3-0 home success over Dortmund when the sides last met in February.<\/p>\n
Dortmund heaped on the pressure late on with both Adrian Ramos and the in-form Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang going close, but the Hamburg defence held firm to grind out a priceless first league win of the season.<\/p>\n
Much has been made of Dortmund’s poor start to the Bundesliga and Jurgen Klopp’s men were sluggish in the early stages against struggling Hamburg.<\/p>\n
World Cup winner Mats Hummels made his first home start of the season in front of a typically vibrant Signal Iduna Park crowd, but it was the visitors who imposed themselves during a scrappy opening period.<\/p>\n
Josef Zinnbauer’s start to life at the Imtech Arena has been a difficult one, but Nicolai Muller, Hamburg’s only scorer this season prior to kick-off, almost put Hamburg ahead after 11 minutes.<\/p>\n
The 27-year-old broke through the Dortmund defence only to skew his effort wide from a tight angle under pressure from goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller.<\/p>\n
But Muller atoned for that miss after 35 minutes when more lacklustre defending from Klopp’s side gifted Hamburg the opener.<\/p>\n
Muller latched onto Ramos’ loose pass in midfield before gliding through Dortmund’s gaping defence and allowing\u00a0Lasogga\u00a0<\/strong>to slot into an empty net.<\/p>\n Lasogga’s goal was no less than Hamburg deserved and Lewis Holtby nearly extended their lead on the stroke of half-time, but his close-range header was just wide.<\/p>\n Just as in the first half, the second period got off to a low-key start.<\/p>\n Despite Dortmund enjoying plenty of possession, Hamburg countered well to keep Weidenfeller busy.<\/p>\n Weidenfeller had conceded six times in his previous three Bundesliga outings heading into Saturday’s clash, but was in top form to parry away a powerful header from Heiko Westermann.<\/p>\n At the other end, Hamburg counterpart Jaroslav Drobny was not to be outdone, with the Czech Republic international producing a first-class save to prevent Ramos’ diving header from finding the bottom corner in the 71st minute.<\/p>\n That chance rallied Dortmund and they went close again moments later as Sebastian Kehl fired his effort just wide as the game approached a frantic climax.<\/p>\n Ramos saw his rasping long-range strike held by Drobny as the late Dortmund onslaught proved frivolous.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n Source: goal.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Borussia Dortmund\u00a0suffered another blow to their Bundesliga title hopes on Saturday as they were beaten 1-0 at home by\u00a0Hamburg. Pierre-Michel Lasogga opened his account for the season with the only goal of the game 10 minutes before half-time on Saturday to send Dortmund crashing to a third defeat in a four-game winless league streak. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":53549,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[29,3],"yoast_head":"\n