Croatia´s Petric fires Hamburg three points clear

October 5, 2008

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Hamburg's Croatia international Mladen Petric scored a last-minute winner in a 2-1 victory at Energie Cottbus on Sunday to move the club three points clear at the top of the German league table.

Hamburg, a low-profile club with an impressive attack having scored 14 goals in their seven matches to date, thanked Petric's intervention for their fifth win of the season.

Earlier, Cottbus's Serbian striker Branko Jelic had equalised in the 73rd minute to cancel out Croatian Ivica Olic's 53rd minute opener.

Hamburg have 16 points, three ahead of both Hoffenheim, who beat Eintracht Frankfurt with two goals from Demba Ba, and VfB Stuttgart, who thrashed Werder Bremen 4-1 on Saturday.

Bayer Leverkusen dropped from second to fourth, four points adrift, following a 1-0 home defeat to Hertha Berlin.

And the shaky position of Jurgen Klinsmann at the helm of Bayern Munich was not helped by their 3-3 draw at home to VfL Bochum.

Klinsmann was hurt to hear his side booed by their own fans, but admitted his team deserved it after leaking two late goals against Bochum.

“Obviously, it hurts to hear the fans voice their anger,” said Klinsmann as the defending champions slumped to 11th in the table.

“But I do understand where they're coming from - our results in the Bundesliga are absolutely not what we wanted.

“From our point of view, our last three results are completely unsatisfactory.”

Bayern seemed certain of victory at 3-1 up with less than ten minutes to play, but the visitors shocked the champions with a late double strike to make off with a point from Munich's Allianz Arena.

Late goals by Bochum midfielders Christoph Dabrowski and Dennis Grote sealed the draw meaning Bayern have now gone three games without a win, which Klinsmann admits is unacceptable.

“When you're 3-1 up, and you've had the chances to score at least two goals more, you basically can't be letting a game like that slip.

“The team thought they were home and dry, the points were basically in the bag. “It's made me very angry.”

The pressure is now mounting on Klinsmann as his position at the club grows increasingly precarious having taken over as head coach on July 1.

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