A first-half header from Hamburg’s Croatian striker Mladen Petric put his side top of the Bundesliga table on Friday and inflicted a shock 1-0 defeat on defending champions Bayern Munich.
On the first day of the second-half of the German league season, following the six-week winter break, Bayern suffered only their third defeat of the season having been humbled by Werder Bremen and Hanover last year.
Petric’s goal puts Hamburg a point clear at the top of the table with previous leaders Hoffenheim in action on Saturday.
Hamburg, coached by former Spurs boss Martin Jol, were without banned Croatian striker Ivica Olic who was sent off for fighting in a friendly with Hoffenheim earlier this month, while Bayern were bouyed by their 5-1 German Cup win over Stuttgart in midweek.
Hamburg made the brighter start when winger Piotr Trochowski hit the post after just six minutes having beaten Bayern goalkeeper Michael Rensing.
Munich looked to have taken the lead when striker Luca Toni hit the back of the net just after the half-hour mark, having held off his marker, but a linesman’s raised flag ruled the goal off-side.
The home side got the breakthrough they thoroughly deserved when Czech Republic midfielder David Jarolim drove his shot in from 35 yards out.
Rensing parried the attempt, but Mladen Petric pounced on the loose ball and headed past the stranded Bayern goalkeeper on 44 minutes to give the home side the lead.
Bayern responded immediately and Toni’s header was driven wide of the post and Hamburg were 1-0 up at half-time.
Both sides squadered chances to score, but the best chance fell to Toni when his forward partner Miroslav Klose set up a clear chance, but the Italian could not connect with the ball.
With less than ten minutes to go, Hamburg goalkeeper Frank Rost and defender Jerome Boateng somehow combined to deny Klose at point-blank range.
