hamburg held by osasuna published: wednesday 9 august 2006, 23.15cet hamburger sv 0-0 ca osasuna a scoreless draw left hamburg with the prospect of an uncomfortable trip to spain in a fortnight's time.
by steffen potter
a scoreless draw against ca osasuna in the first leg of the uefa champions league third qualifying round has left hamburger sv with the prospect of an uncomfortable trip to spain in two weeks' time.
promising start hamburg were first to show their intentions in front of more than 47,000 fans when a vincent kompany header bounced off the crossbar following rafael van der vaart's free-kick. while hamburg were aggressive and dominant in the opening phase, osasuna's tactically disciplined play, especially in central defence, limited the hosts' scoring chances.
poor connection after 23 minutes a teasing cross by guy demel reached the head of boubacar sanogo but he failed to connect fully with the ball. seconds later, though, a mistake by bastian reinhardt left roberto soldado clear in front of sascha kirschstein, but the hamburg keeper denied osasuna the lead. struggling to breach the visitors' back line, piotr trochowski tried his luck with a long-range shot, before the bundesliga side came even closer as van der vaart's deflected effort was touched over by team-mate josé paolo guerrero.
missed chance two minutes after the restart, sanogo should have broken the deadlock as a van der vaart drive from inside the box rebounded to his feet via the goalkeeper, yet he could not force the ball past ricardo lópez. at the other end the lively soldado was again thwarted by kirschstein before, in a goalmouth scramble, savo milošević was frustrated by mehdi mahdavikia's alert defending. then, close to full time, lópez kept out nigel de jong's attempt following another van der vaart set-piece.
