体坛英语新闻：Hamburg held, Darmstadt shock Hoffenheim in German Bundesliga

BERLIN, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- Hamburg secured a draw on home soil thanks to Nicolai Mueller's equalizer while newly promoted Darmstadt shocked relegation threatened Hoffenheim 2-0 to complete the 20th round in Bundesliga on Sunday.

Hamburg shared the spoils with Cologne following a 1-1. Simon Zoller opened the scoring for the visitors before Nicolai Mueller restored parity to secure the "HSV" the first point in 2016.

Cologne took the reins from the kick-off against uninspired hosts to produce a number of scoring opportunities. Cologne' s Anthony Modeste and Filip Mladenovic came close from promising positions before Simon Zoller broke the deadlock after Jonas Hector' s assist, with four minutes remaining in the first half.

After the harmless first-half performance Hamburg' s coach Bruno Labbadia made amendments and fielded substitute Artjoms Rudnevs, who was in the thick of things as he teed up for Nicola Mueller' s leveller in the 47th minute.

Both sides exchanged offensive actions but neither Hamburg nor Cologne were able to mark the winner, although the visitors created the more threatening chances in the closing period.

With the draw, Hamburg slipped to the 13th place meanwhile Cologne remain on the 9th position of the standings.

"I am satisfied with the performance of my team. We had the chance to win but unfortunately results do not always reflect what we deserve," Cologne' s coach Peter Stoeger said.

Elsewhere, newly promoted Darmstadt increase Hoffenheim' s relegation worries, as the "Lilien" clinched a 2-0 victory on the road.

Aytac Sulu marked the opener by header at the 33rd minute for the visitors before Slobodan Rajkovic sealed the deal with his late goal in the 85th minute.

With the result, Darmstadt reaped the sixth win of the season to climb on the 11th place whereas Hoffenheim wait for their first win in 2016 to stay on the 17th position.

"We did not gain a foothold into the game in the first 20 minutes. As soon as we got better, we conceded a goal. That killed the game for us," Hoffenheim' s coach Huub Steven said.