Bruno Labbadia saw no reason to make any changes to the eleven that began in Hamburg for the clash with the ‘Roten Teufel’. The best opportunity in the first half fell to Martin Harnik after ten minutes after taking on a good through pass from Tamas Hajnal, unfortunately the Austrian international’s shot proved too harmless and was easily covered by FCK keeper Tobias Sippel, whom was eventually to become the man of the match.

There was some spectacular incidents on the half hour mark, with Harnik twice having the opportunity to open the scoring from a Hajnal corner – the first screwing wayward to Georg Niedermeier, who put the ball back into the danger zone, the number 7’s second attempt with an over-head kick was turned away stunningly by Tobias Sippel. The game was still locked at 0-0 going into the break.

Much of the same after the break 

The second half was to prove very similar to the first, with VfB controlling the play but ultimately unable to find a way of breaking the FCK resolve. In the final ten minutes alone, the home side had four chances to open the scoring and seal their third consecutive victory but three times VfB’s best efforts were foiled by Tobias Sippel, who twice denied Cacau and then Vedad Ibisevic.