体坛英语新闻：Hamburg, Mainz reap wins in German Bundesliga

BERLIN, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Hamburg came from behind to beat Hannover 3-1 in the Northern derby and Mainz luckily sealed three points with a neat 3-2 win at Bremen to close the 13th round of Bundesliga on Sunday.

The "Rothosen" recovered from two straight defeats when they edged Hannover 3-1 on home soil. Meanwhile, Hannover wait for their first win after eight winless games.

Both sides ensured a slow start, as they were anxious to stage a well-positioned defence. Therefore, offensive actions were a rare occurrence during the first twenty minutes.

However, Hannover's Szabolcs Huszti broke the deadlock out of the blue at the 28th minute. The Hungarian took the ball off Hamburg's Tomas Rincon to slot home from 16 meters into the top left corner.

It was a short-lived joy by the visitors as Hamburg's Milan Badelj responded three minutes later to restore parity. Badelj made use of a rebound to score with a volley from 22 meters.

The hosts grabbed the lead for the first time when Maximilian Beister astonished Hannover just one minute after the restart. Heiko Westermann crossed into the box to find Beister in the box, who headed past Hannover's custodian Ron Robert Zieler.

Hamburg's Hakan Clahanoglu made the game safe at the 84th minute when he overcame Zieler thanks to an assist by Beister. Nonetheless, Hannover ensured the last highlight of the match when Salif Sane was sent off for his second bookable offence.

Elsewhere, Mainz got off lightly as they rescued three points from courageous Bremen.

Mainz's Nicolai Mueller caught the host flat footed when he opened the scoring with just seven minutes into the match. It took just another ten minutes before Shinji Okazaki doubled the lead against drowsy Bremen.

The host gained a foothold into the match with the restart but lacked in efficiency in front of Mainz danger zone. However, it were the visitors that tripled the lead at the 70th minute through Okazaki, who sealed his brace.

Bremen remained unimpressed as they reduced the arrears to 3-2 by courtesy of Eljero Elia and Franco di Santo to shock the visitors in the closing period. Still, Bremen were unable to avoid the loss.

Bremen suffered their sixth loss to sit on 12th place whereas Mainz recorded their sixth win to occupy 7th position.