Hamburg, Freiburg boost survival prospects

Just five points separate 13th-placed Eintracht Frankfurt and 17th-placed VfB Stuttgart in a tight Bundesliga survival race after Hamburger SV and SC Freiburg both boosted their prospects with wins against fellow strugglers on Sunday.

Hamburg overcame 1. FC Nürnberg – and leapfrogged their opponents into 14th – courtesy of the attacking talents of Hakan Çalhanoğlu. Having peppered the visitors' goal and drawn several good saves from Raphael Schäfer, the young Turkish international finally broke the deadlock with a deflected effort ten minutes from time. Mike Frantz's own goal made it two, although Josip Drmic's stoppage-time strike ensured a nail-biting finish.

Hamburg have now taken seven points from the last available 12, but clinging to their coat-tails are Freiburg, who ended their six-game winless streak in style with a 4-1 success at Eintracht.

Julian Schuster's overhead kick put the visitors in front with their first shot on goal and Karim Guédé skipped around goalkeeper Kevin Trapp to added a second after the interval. Joselu nodded in a rebound to deservedly reduce the deficit for the hosts, but Felix Klaus restored Freiburg's two-goal advantage, before Guédé's coolly taken second completed the scoring.