Nandja and Grønbæk Strike After Itakura Red Card as Hamburg Beat Bottom Side Gladbach 3-1

For 49 minutes, this looked like the kind of night Borussia Mönchengladbach have been waiting for all season. They had come to Hamburg, the league's great sleeping giant, taken a punch early, and punched straight back. Then Ko Itakura lost his head, the game tilted, and by the time the clock hit 70 minutes the visitors were beaten again, still rooted to the bottom of the Bundesliga with only one win to their name. Hamburg started the way the home crowd wanted. Eleven minutes in, Miro Muheim arrived to finish off a move built by Albert Sambi Lokonga, and the Volksparkstadion found its voice. It is the sort of start that has carried Hamburg through their first season back among the big boys, all noise and forward momentum, and for a while it looked as though Gladbach would simply be swept aside. But this Gladbach side, for all their troubles, have not forgotten how to fight. Joe Scally drove forward on the stroke of half-time and picked out Robin Hack, who finished coolly to make it 1-1 at the break. It was the first time all evening the away end could be heard, and it gave the visitors something they have rarely had this season: a platform, a foothold, a reason to believe the second half could be theirs. It lasted four minutes. Itakura, already walking a fine line, was dismissed early in the second half, and the whole shape of the evening changed in an instant. A man down, away from home, against a Hamburg side that smells blood — there was only ever one way that was going to go. Shafiq Nandja restored Hamburg's lead in the 59th minute, turning in Grønbæk's pass, and eleven minutes later Grønbæk got one of his own to seal it. Two goals in eleven minutes, both of them coming after the red card had stretched Gladbach's defence past breaking point, and the Volksparkstadion could settle back and enjoy the rest of the evening. The result lifts Hamburg into eighth place as the ninth round of the Bundesliga gets under way, a solid return for a club still finding its feet back in the top flight. For Gladbach, the picture is far bleaker. They began this season with six consecutive defeats, and while they have since picked up a first win, nights like this one keep coming. One win from nine games, bottom of the table, and a squad that keeps finding new ways to lose. There is still time, of course. The Bundesliga has a habit of forgiving slow starters, and Gladbach have the players to climb out of trouble. But they will have to stop handing games away first. On Friday night, for 49 minutes, they were in a football match. Then Itakura walked, and they were not.