Even Stevens in the Northern derby. Hamburg SV and Werder Bremen played out a 1:1 draw at the Weser stadium on the eleventh match day of the season in front of a capacity crowd. David Jarolim put the visitors in front in the 23rd minute but had his goal cancelled out with an equaliser from Christian Schulz with sixteen minutes left to play after long periods of unfruitful Werder pressure. The draw sees the German champions slip down to sixth in the table.

Werder pressed HSV back into their own half of the pitch from early on and Ivan Klasnic almost profitted from some clever play by Daniel Jensen in the first minute but the Croatians shot from 16 meters failed to test the Hamburg keeper. Ten minutes later the Werder striker popped up again but this time keeper Pieckenhagen was equal to his shot. Once again it was Werders new midfielder Jensen who instigated this attack and was to be Werders most noticable player in the first half.

One Shot - One Goal for HSV

Werder failed to make use of their superiority in the opening phase and they would be made to pay for their missed chances. After a quarter hour HSV managed to release themselves from the consistant Green-White pressure and pushed forward themselves. The "Rothosen" (red shorts) first attack in ernest in the 23rd minute led to them taking the lead. Speedy HSV striker Emile Mpenza snapped on to a badly placed badly placed back header from Johan Micoud. The Belgien skipped around Andi Reinke, who had come charging out of his goal, and burst down the left dribbling past Stalteri before crossing into the box where David Jarolim was on hand to head home into an empty net from eleven meters.

Werder appeared a little taken aback by the HSV lead and needed another ten minutes to recover from the shock. Werder seemed somewhat static during this period and were guilty of needlessly loosing the ball in midfield. HSv were at this point cleverer and closed Werder down making it difficult to play football. It wasn't until the 37th minute that Thomas Schaafs eleven found themselves back in front of Martin Pieckenhagens goal. Following a chaotic goalmouth scramble, the ball fell to the feet of Ivan Klasnic who struck immediately only to see his shot zip wide of the left upright.

Schulz on target - again!!

Werder continued to attack after the break but were unable to break down a tightly packed HSV defence. Hamburg themselves proved dangerous on the counter but equally to no avail. On the hour, Thomas Schaaf sent a third striker into the fray in the form of Nelson Valdez and with that made it clear that Werder had only one thing in mind. Unfortunatly the German champions were continually caught in possession in midfield leaving their front men little to feed on and causing danger only from dead ball situations.

Werders equaliser was also a set piece. Pieckenhagen punced a Micoud free-kick clear but only as far as Ivan Klasnic who turned the ball back into the box where Christian Schulz got his thigh to the cross and put the hosts back on level peggings. Schulz was equally successful last week and caused HSV many problems pushing forward out of the midfield.

Werder spent the last fifteen minutes with only one goal and forced the opponents as far back as possible but didin't really threaten the HSV goal. Both Valdez and Klose had chances before the end but the points were to stay shared.