Hamburg’s Rafael van der Vaart (right) heads a ball during their Bundesliga match against Nuremberg. (EPA)


DPA/Berlin


SV Hamburg eased their Bundesliga relegation worries yesterday with a home win over Nuremberg and Freiburg moved up to the play-off spot with victory at Eintracht Frankfurt.
Freiburg withstood early pressure and showed clinical finishing to win 4-1 away to Frankfurt.
The guests took the lead against the run of play as first Matthias Ginter and then Pavel Krmas won headers from a corner and Julian Schuster was left alone to score with an overhead kick.
A brilliant break in the 54th minute doubled the lead as Admir Mehmedi split the defence with a perfectly weighted pass and Karim Guede tapped home having rounded Kevin Trapp.
Frankfurt were given hope when Joselu headed home his own rebound from Baumann on the hour mark but Felix Klaus shot beyond Trapp to seal the points with 20 minutes remaining.
Despite pressure from the hosts, Freiburg remained a constant threat on the counter and Guede added a fourth in injury time.
Earlier Hamburg claimed a deserved 2-1 home win over Nuremberg thanks to a late deflected strike from Hakan Calhanoglu and a Mike Frantz own goal.
Josip Drmic scored for the visitors in injury time but it was too late to salvage something from a poor performance. The win moves Hamburg to 14th in the table, above Nuremberg who are now 15th.
Hamburg had missed several chances, often denied by the superb performance of visiting keeper Rafael Schaefer, but when Calhanoglu’s shot took a massive deflection off Mike Frantz, the hosts had the lead in the 80th minute.
The unfortunate Frantz then gave Hamburg breathing space by turning a cross from Petr Jiracek into his own goal six minutes later.
Nuremberg threatened an unlikely comeback when Drmic scored in injury time but when Rene Adler tipped away Jose Campana’s free kick with the last touch of the game, the points were secured.
“We missed too many chances in the first half but we kept on working,” Hamburg coach Mirko Slomka told Sky TV. “Our belief paid off and brought the reward.”
Goalscorer Calhanoglu expressed his relief at the team making the late breakthrough. “For me this is a great feeling. Finally we made the two goals and are happy. We were clear in our heads and knew exactly what was at stake,” he said.
Hamburg seemed set for a frustrating afternoon in the second half, Schaefer’s saves from Rafael van der Vaart and Ivo Ilicevic kept the visitors level.
And even when Schaefer was beaten from a corner kick, Javier Pinola cleared Jacques Zoua’s header from the line.
Nuremberg carried more threat in the first half as Markus Feulner struck the post with a half-volley and Rene Adler had to be at full stretch to save a deflected shot from Hiroshi Kioytake.