Hamburger SV get their first points and first goals of the season, beating Köln 2-1

Hamburger SV had gone three Bundesliga matches without scoring a single goal, let alone winning one, before this. A 2-1 win over 1. FC Köln at the Volksparkstadion changed both of those numbers at once, giving Merlin Polzin's side their first league victory since returning to the top flight and ending a run that had brought zero goals and three straight defeats.

It came despite Köln dominating the ball for long spells — the visitors had 68% possession on the afternoon — but Hamburg made their moments count. Nicolás Capaldo headed the hosts in front just before half-time, and Yussuf Poulsen doubled the lead early in the second half to put HSV in control. Ragnar Ache pulled one back for Köln in the 90th minute to set up a nervy finish, but Hamburg held on.

Match facts

• 44' — Nicolás Capaldo (Hamburger SV)
• 50' — Yussuf Poulsen (Hamburger SV)
• 90' — Ragnar Ache (1. FC Köln)

Capaldo's afternoon went beyond the opening goal — he also made a vital tackle in his own box to deny a clear Köln chance — and he was named Man of the Match for a display that combined the winning contribution with the defensive work that kept Hamburg's first clean-sheet-adjacent lead intact until Ache's late reply.

What's next

Hamburger SV had opened the round bottom of the Bundesliga table on 0 points from three games, without a single goal scored and 12 conceded across those matches — the division's worst return by some distance. Three points move them above Borussia Mönchengladbach, who stayed on 0 points after losing at home to Mainz on the same day, meaning Hamburg's first win, first goals and first clean margin of victory of the campaign also lift them off the bottom of the table heading into the international break. Köln had entered the day 12th on 4 points from a win, a loss and a draw; the defeat leaves them mid-table but facing questions about turning territory into results, having controlled possession without controlling the scoreline.

Two very different runs into this game

This was the third Bundesliga match logged for Hamburger SV, and it came off the back of consecutive defeats without a goal to their name — 0-2 away at Borussia Dortmund, then 0-5 away at RB Leipzig. Both of those setbacks had left Merlin Polzin's side looking like a club struggling to adjust to top-flight speed after promotion; two goals and three points against Köln broke both the losing run and the goalless run inside the same 90 minutes, the first time this season Hamburg have had anything to celebrate.

Köln's form had swung between extremes too, if less severely. A 3-2 opening win over TSG Hoffenheim gave way to a heavy 4-1 defeat away at VfB Stuttgart, before a 1-1 draw at home to Werder Bremen steadied things ahead of the trip to Hamburg. The loss at the Volksparkstadion is Köln's second in four matchdays, and continues a pattern in which the ball has not translated into points — Saturday's 68% possession share was among the highest they have recorded this season, yet it produced only a stoppage-time consolation goal.

Score by half

Where the table stands after matchday 4

With the round complete, Hamburg sit 16th on 3 points from four games, in the Bundesliga's relegation play-off place outright, with a -11 goal difference that is the division's second-worst, behind only 1. FC Union Berlin below them. The win did lift Hamburg clear of the bottom two — Union Berlin on 1 point and Borussia Mönchengladbach on 0 — but not out of the play-off zone itself, which is where three points from four games still leaves them. Köln, five places and one point better off in 13th on 4 points from a 6-9 goal record, remain closer to mid-table than to danger, but five other clubs sit within a single point of them in the table's midsection, leaving little room for another afternoon like this one.