With City about to face Hamburg in a friendly in Abu Dhabi as they prepare to face Middlesborough in the FA Cup, we have Head Admin of Read Man City’ sister site ‘Flares & Fussball’, Deano Spyrou, write about Hamburg and what City can expect from the Germans.
Hamburg are an interesting case of a football club. Once amongst the Bayern Munichs of this world, Die Rothosen have won 6 German league titles – an impressive feat, but an unlikely one given their current state. The glory days are long-gone from the Imtech Arena, and they currently find themselves 14th in the Bundesliga.
Last season was a complete footballing nightmare from a Hamburg perspective. In 2012/13 they finished 7th – roughly what was expected – but they didn’t see this as a triumph, just another season. The next campaign, however, was a completely different one: not only did they play badly, but they also found themselves in a genuine relegation battle; and eventually stayed in the division through a play-off match. Considering the fact that they are a vastly-supported, financially-backed football team, this was a disaster. Their final fate was that they’d be in the top division for the next season though; and they saw this as an opportunity to rebuild, regroup and, ultimately, sort themselves out.
This campaign represented a fresh start for the side from the north of Germany. Talisman Hakan Çalhanoğlu left the club, but there were still a number of respectable players in the team and the fans were hoping that last season was just a blip. It hasn’t proved to be, though —14th isn’t exactly a good position for such a historically-rich team —and the Hamburg of 13/14 have re-shown themselves on occasions this time around.
From a City perspective, this shouldn’t be too big a test. Hamburg are an average side at this moment in time who struggle to score goals in a free-scoring league. Defensively, they aren’t the worst —they have surprisingly conceded the fourth-least in the Bundesliga this season —but the likes of Agüero and Silva shouldn’t have too sizeable a problem getting through the defence.
The attacking ability that they have, or lack of it, will be further lessened with the injury of Lewis Holtby potentially taking away a lot of creativity. As a result of this as well as the team as a whole, the defensive side of this game shouldn’t be too big a problem for the Mancunians. Centre-back Cléber is in decent form, and he and Johan Djourou pose an athletic and respectable partnership at the heart of the German defence, but the intelligence and technique that the Citizens are blessed with in attack should be enough to get them a few goals.
My prediction: Man City 3-0 Hamburger SV
