Frustrating draw
Frustrating draw
On Saturday evening, Hertha BSC drew 1-1 with SV Werder Bremen. Claudio Pizarro scored an equaliser in the 95th minute to scrape a draw for the visitors.
Formation
Pál Dárdai made one change to the team that won 3-0 away in Gladbach last weekend. The suspended Valentino Lazaro, who missed his first game of the season last week, came in for Lukas Klünter. The visitors were unchanged from their 4-0 victory over FC Augsburg in matchday 21. Ex-Herthaner Sebastian Langkamp was in the starting line-up for Werder.
Match Summary
It was an intense game in the Olympiastadion from the very offset. The opening minutes served up very little in terms of chances, but a midfield battle quickly started, with plenty of challenges going in. The first real opportunity fell to the hosts. After a stunning delivery from Salomon Kalou, Davie Selke lashed the ball against the post (21'). Four minutes later, the attacker went one better. Ondrej Duda started the move and Salomon Kalou was the provider once again, as Selke slotted past Pavlenka to make it 1-0. Having taken the lead, and with the full force of a vocal Olympiastadion behind them, Hertha continued to push for a second. Most of the traffic came on the right-hand side through a solid showing from Valentino Lazaro, who was involved in several attacking chances. The biggest opportunity to make it 2-0 fell to Duda, but his direct freekick struck the visitors' crossbar (38'). The score stayed at 'just' 1-0 as both sides left the pitch at the break.
After Milot Rashica's effort a minute after the re-start, it took 15 minutes for Hertha to provide any threat in the second half. Ondrej Duda burst into the Bremen penalty area, but ex-Hertha defender Langkamp stopped him before he could get his shot away. Nine minutes later, Marko Grujić had a shot from distance, which went just over the bar (69'). After this, Bremen had control of the game, although they couldn't make any clear cut opportunities for themselves. The Old Lady stayed compact at the back and Rune Jarstein was on hand every time the ball got in behind. This stayed the case until the fifth minute of added time: Bremen's Claudio Pizarro's free-kick went through Hertha's wall and was deflected home, meaning it finished 1-1.
Conclusion and Outlook
After the frustrating 1-1 draw, Hertha BSC are currently sat in 9th place with 32 points. The capital club will face FC Bayern in the Allianz-Arena next Saturday (15:30 CET).