Hamburg in control

Van Nistelrooy: Celebrates

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Hamburg took control of their last 16 Europa League clash with Anderlecht after a convincing 3-1 win in the first leg at the Nordbank Arena.

Dutch stopper Joris Mathijsen put Hamburg ahead midway through the first-half before fellow countryman Ruud van Nistelrooy doubled their advantage.

Jonathan Legear pulled one back for the visitors on the stroke of half-time, but David Jarolim restored the two-goal advantage 14 minutes from time.

Anderlecht allowed the hosts, with striker Van Nistelrooy in the starting line-up for the first time under boss Bruno Labbadia, to control the midfield in the early stages.

The Belgians relied on counter-attacking through 16-year-old striker Romelu Lukaku, who caused plenty of problems for the Hamburg defence and Mathijsen in particular.

Hamburg could hardly string passes together but grabbed the lead after 23 minutes courtesy of a mistake by the Anderlecht backline. Dennis Aogo's long shot caused panic and an attempted clearance bounced into the path of Mathijsen, who sent a first-time right-foot shot into the bottom left corner past keeper Sylvio Proto from near the penalty spot.

Van the man

Van Nistelrooy doubled the advantage five minutes before the break. Mladen Petric's header went to the left side of Proto's goal and Eljero Elia chipped the ball over to fellow Dutchman Van Nistelrooy, whose left-foot shot beat Proto before glancing off the near post and into the far side netting.

The Belgians halved the deficit just before the interval with a glorious free-kick by Legear, who curled his 25-yard shot over the wall and into the top corner.

Van Nistelrooy had another goal ruled out for offside in the 56th minute before Proto was forced to make a fine save from Petric's blast and Hamburg keeper Frank Rost stopped Lucas Biglia's strike from 20 yards a minute thereafter.

Hamburg regained their two-goal lead with 14 minutes remaining after another poor clearance attempt by the Belgian backline, as Guillaume Gillet's header landed at the feet of Jarolim, who blasted home from 16 yards.

Neither team could score again despite excellent chances over the final quarter-hour.