Guerrero grabs Hamburg late win

Guerrero grabs Hamburg late win

Hamburg left it late in a 1-0 victory over
Cologne at the Mungersdorfer Stadion, scoring
through Jose Paolo Guerrero in the 88th
minute.
The victory moves Thorsten Fink's side up to
their highest position all season into tenth
place above Cologne and Hoffenheim.
Cologne spent much of the game on the back
foot and it came as little surprise their defence
breached late on. And although they led
Hamburg by a point coming into this game,
such advantage was not reflected in their timid
approach.
Cologne were extremely defensive, breaking
only once, with Milivoje Novakovic caught
cold in their attack when he failed to control
the ball on the half-hour mark and Jaroslav
Drobny cleaned up the opportunity.
Things had to change in the second half if the
home team were to aspire to anything more
than a goalless draw, and they did. Martin Lanig
thought he had put Hamburg in front from a
well-worked free-kick in the 62nd minute, but
the linesman's flag was raised.
The disallowed goal certainly lifted the
crowd and it boosted the Hamburg's spirits too,
with Odhise Roshi racing down the right and
sending in a dangerous cross a minute later.
As a result, the game opened up and Hamburg
started to find ways through. Mladen Petric
exchanged passed with Guerrero to break into
the penalty area in the 75th minute, but his
volley went wide of the far post.
Three minutes later, the Croatian was adjudged
to be offside when his shot was pushed onto
the post by an increasingly busy Michael
Rensing. A further five minutes had elapsed
when Rensing had to make a good reflex save
to deny Dennis Aogo, who latched onto
Guerrero's downward header.
The Cologne goalkeeper was let down by his
defence in the 88th minute, though, as
Guerrero beat the offside trap to reach Petric's
ball through and lift the ball past Rensing from
a tight angle, with Pedro Geromel unable to
make a clearance on the goal-line.