Hamburg climb off bottom with first league win

BERLIN: Hamburg moved off the bottom of the Bundesliga table on Sunday after securing their fi rst league win of the season with a 2- 0 victory at fellow- strugglers Darmstadt.

RB Leipzig fi nish the weekend top of the table after their 2-1 win at home to Schalke on Saturday night extended their unbeaten run to 13 games -- a league record for a side in their fi rst Bundesliga season.

The victory saw them replace Bayern Munich, who won 3-1 at Freiburg on Friday thanks to two goals from Robert Lewandowski, to go three points clear of Carlo Ancelotti’s Bavarian giants.

At the other end of the table, Ingolstadt, who lost 2-1 at Bremen on Saturday, are now bottom after Hamburg’s Michael Gregoritsch scored his third goal in two games to give his side a fi rst-half lead at Darmstadt.

When Serbia winger Filip Kostic whipped in a cross with half an hour gone, striker Gregoritsch produced a superb d iving header.

In the dying stages, Japan international Gotoku Sakai sprinted clear, then slipped the ball to Matthias Ostrzolek, who blasted home on his left foot from the edge of the area on 90 minutes for his fi rst Bundesliga goal.

“It is important that we won - - it was a sign to the league that we’re still alive,” Gregoritsch told Sky after a win which took some of the pressure off Hamburg coach Markus Gisdol.

“It feels like a big rock has been lifted off all of our hearts.”

The result leaves Hamburg 17th, one place below Darmstadt, with both teams in the relegation places. This was only Hamburg’s third win of the season in all competitions after winning both of their German Cup ties against low-league opposition. — AFP