Borussia Dortmund vs. Hamburg: Winners and Losers from Bundesliga Game

Borussia Dortmund continued their poor run of domestic form in the Bundesliga this weekend with a truly harrowing 1-0 defeat to bottom-of-the-table Hamburg at the Westfalenstadion. 

Jurgen Klopp's side have really struggled in the German top division this season, but Saturday's defeat to lowly Hamburg will surely put things into perspective following yet another fantastic victory in the Champions League during the midweek. 

For Josef Zinnbauer's side, a first win of the season offers a whole range of possibilities for the ever-present Bundesliga club. Hamburg have always had a habit of stealing points from Dortmund, yet this weekend they claimed all three. 

Here are the winners and losers from Saturday's game. 

Loser: Dortmund's Record Against Hamburg

Martin Meissner/Associated Press

Hamburg have now taken four of the last five meetings between these two sides in the German top division. 

Such a record is one that has become rather notorious throughout Dortmund whenever the club come up against the perpetually troubled team from the north, but it's one that really shouldn't have been allowed to exist at all. 

Despite a number of harsh injuries to members of Klopp's squad, on paper Hamburg certainly didn't look good enough to defeat the starting 11 that Dortmund put out Saturday. 

Quality isn't what stopped Dortmund from picking up points on Saturday, as Hamburg returned home with yet another scalp from the Ruhr. 

Winner: Pierre-Michel Lasogga

Martin Meissner/Associated Press

Hamburg fans will undoubtedly be delighted with Saturday's result against Dortmund, but the real cherry on the cake was the fact that Pierre-Michel Lasogga opened the scoring for the away side. 

The 22-year-old striker has been a favourite in Hamburg since moving from Hertha Berlin a few seasons ago and was absolutely vital to last season's last-minute survival with 15 goals in all competitions, according to transfermarkt. 

Yet the German forward had until this weekend failed to get off the mark for the dinosaurs this season, a run of form that has perhaps played a large part in his team's inability to pick up enough points.

Now that he's scoring again, we can only hope that should turn his club's fortunes around. 

Loser: Dortmund's Toothless Attack

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Although we tend to pick out Dortmund's subpar defensive record from week to week, it was instead the horrendous performance put on by the club's front line that attracted the criticism Saturday.  

Without Marco Reus, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Nuri Sahin and others, Dortmund's attack is certainly down to the bare bones. Yet the players on show Saturday could have certainly done much better against a weak Hamburg side. 

It says plenty about Klopp's current situation that so much of his team's attack now goes through Shinji Kagawa almost exclusively, despite only returning to the club a few weeks ago. While bit-part players such as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Kevin Grosskreutz continue to struggle to leave their mark from one game to the next. 

Dortmund have to return to their old style of killing off games with goals if they have any hope of climbing this Bundesliga table. 

Winner: Hamburg's First Win of the Season

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Hamburg fans will be in an ecstatic mood this weekend following their first win in the Bundesliga since April 4, when they overcame Bayer Leverkusen 2-1 in the league last season. 

Having quickly parted ways with Mirko Slomka so prematurely in this year's campaign, there was and certainly still is fear of yet another relegation battle in store for Zinnbauer's side. 

Yet with this win, Hamburg have now taken four points from Bayern Munich and Dortmund in just four games since the new manager took over at the club. And now Hamburg sit on level points with Stuttgart and Werder Bremen at the bottom of the table. 

Still a lot of work to be done, but encouraging signs for the old dinosaur. 

Losers: Dortmund's Title Challenge

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Looking at the larger picture after a result like this, it now seems as though any hopes of a tight title challenge between Bayern and Dortmund is almost all but gone. 

Although it may seem rather presumptuous or even premature to suggest that the Bundesliga trophy is all Bayern's after just seven league games, it does seem as though Dortmund look far from prepared to keep up with the Bavarian club's rich vein of form. 

After Saturday's results, Bayern now sit top of the Bundesliga 13 points above Dortmund, the last club to have successfully wrestled the title from them.