Wolfsburg concede late 1-1 in Hamburg under new coach

Hamburg, Jan 30 (DPA) Piotr Trochowski struck in injury time as SV Hamburg drew 1-1 with VfL Wolfsburg Friday night to leave the Bundesliga champions winless in 10 games.

The substitute Trochowski got a deserved equaliser with a blasting freekick on the last play of the match as new Wolfsburg coach Lorenz-Guenther Koestner was denied a perfect debut after taking over from the sacked Armin
Veh on Monday.

Bosnian striker Edin Dzeko had given Wolfsburg the lead with his ninth goal of the season in the first half in driving snowfall. But Wolfsburg were eventually denied a first win since they beat Hoffenheim Nov 7.

Wolfsburg remained 10th with 25 points and Hamburg are fifth on 34.

Wolfsburg got an early chance from Dzeko before their fragile defence was lucky three times in 120 seconds. Mladen Petric's freekick sailed inches wide, Andre Lenz saved from Marcell Jansen's header and Marcus Berg's header
was scraped off the goal line.

Dzeko's class then provided Wolfsburg's 1-0 lead in the 34th when the striker chested a deep pass, wrong-footed central defender Joris Mathijsen and curled home into the far left corner.

David Rozehnal was denied by the crossbar as Hamburg had enough chances to reverse matters in the second half before the late equaliser. The poor finishing only added to the anticipation that newly hired star striker Ruud van Nistelrooy is soon fit to make his debut.

The result left neither side happy.

"If you get an equaliser in the last minute it is extremely bitter," said Koestner.

Petric also named the result "bitter" for Hamburg, saying "we had enough chances to win the match".

Wolfsburg failed to get some badly needed morale as they now face the league top three of Bayer Leverkusen, Bayern Munich and Schalke in the next games.

Leverkusen (41 points) host lowly SC Freiburg on Sunday. The scheduling allows Munich (39) to move to the top again for at least 24 hours if they beat promoted Mainz on Saturday.