Hamburg vs. Bayern Munich: Winners and Losers from Bundesliga Game
Hamburg held Bayern Munich to a point on Saturday, the northern German side hanging on to a scoreless draw for 90 minutes at the Imtech Arena.
The result left the Bavarians third in the Bundesliga table at the time, behind Paderborn and Hoffenheim on goal difference. The likes of Borussia Dortmund, Bayer Leverkusen, Borussia Monchengladbach, Mainz and Koln were all left within striking distance of Bayern with a game in hand.
HSV, meanwhile, moved from 18th to 17th in the Bundesliga table, surpassing Stuttgart as they doubled their points tally.
Although Hamburg are still a long way from confirming their presence in the Bundesliga next season, the result can be seen as a big positive for them. For Bayern, it's a second draw in four games and will be remembered as a disappointment against a team against which they had scored 24 goals in their five previous meetings.
As always, there were winners and losers from Saturday's action. Click "Begin Slideshow" for B/R's analysis of who came out the better and worse.
Loser: Xherdan Shaqiri
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After widespread speculation over his future during the summer, Xherdan Shaqiri remained a Bayern player and was used regularly during the preseason. But he failed to impress during that time and has since been used sparingly in competitive matches, failing to make much of an impression.
With Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben sidelined with injuries and much of the Bayern attack struggling with fatigue, Shaqiri was given another chance on Saturday; he started on the right wing with Thomas Muller the only other established, first-choice attacker in Pep Guardiola's lineup.
Shaqiri made very little impact on the game, however, lasting 66 minutes before the trainer replaced him with Robert Lewandowski. If there was ever a time to make an impact, it was Saturday. Shaqiri's chances at Bayern may well be numbered.
Winner: Josef Zinnbauer
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Following Mirko Slomka's sacking as Hamburg's head coach, Josef Zinnbauer was appointed as his replacement on Tuesday. HSV's ex-reserve team coach is now in charge of a Bundesliga team for the first time in his career; he had an enormously difficult task for his debut match and exceeded all expectations by a considerable margin.
In their previous five meetings with Hamburg, Bayern had scored 24 goals. But this time, instead of running up the score against their hosts, the two-time defending Bundesliga champions struggled to find an opportunity to score even once.
Hamburg will take a huge confidence boost from their performance. Zinnbauer could hardly have hoped for a better way to begin his career as a Bundesliga coach.
Loser: Pierre Hojbjerg
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The lead-up to the 2014-15 campaign could not have been better for Pierre Hojbjerg, who not long after looking to have an impossible task was given a clear path to the Bayern first team.
Toni Kroos was sold, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Javi Martinez and Thiago Alcantara were all pronounced out of action for at least the first few months of the campaign and Bayern even gave up their rights to re-sign Emre Can after the Germany under-21 international was sold by Leverkusen to Liverpool.
Hojbjerg has instead not impressed Pep Guardiola particularly much thus far and even 17-year-old prospect Gianluca Gaudino has in many instances been used ahead of him.
The 19-year-old Dane was given a rare start on Saturday but again didn't have much to offer. He had a poor game individually alongside Philipp Lahm in midfield: His passing accuracy left much to be desired and he looked completely overrun.
Hojbjerg was taken off after 53 minutes with Xabi Alonso replacing him; it's hard to see the youngster being preferred to the veteran Spaniard any time in the near future.
Winner: Heiko Westermann
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The peak of Heiko Westermann's career may be long gone, but the 31-year-old rolled back the years on Saturday and delivered an exemplary performance in central defense. The ex-Schalke man was arguably the best player on the pitch.
Whether in the air or on the ground, Westermann was nearly always first to the ball: The official Bundesliga live ticker cites him as having won eight of nine challenges, an impressive stat considering he had to deal with Robert Lewandowski for the final quarter of the game.
Westermann faces an uphill battle if he is ever to find his way back into the German national team, but following yet another injury to Holger Badstuber and the retirement of Per Mertesacker, there is a slight chance for the veteran. If he can keep up his level of performance, he just might earn a recall.
