Bundesliga: Hamburg out of relegation zone with 3-0 win over Paderborn

Hamburg picked up an important 3-0 victory over Paderborn on Wednesday night, moving out of the Bundesliga relegation zone and above their hosts in the standings.

Rafael van der Vaart gave Hamburg an early lead and Marcell Jansen added a second in the 72nd minute before Zoltan Stieber rubber-stamped their victory with the last kick of the game.

Paderborn, who started the season as favourites for relegation and seemed to be upsetting the odds during the first half of the season, now find themselves just above the relegation zone after a second straight defeat at the start of the new year.

Both sides came into the game off the back of disappointing results at the weekend, with Paderborn going down 5-0 at Mainz and Hamburg falling to an unexpected 2-0 defeat at home to Cologne.

Hamburg were given a perfect opportunity to put that defeat behind them when they earned a penalty within 10 seconds of the kick-off as Patrick Ziegler fouled Jansen inside the penalty area.

Van der Vaart stepped up to the spot and sent Lukas Kruse the wrong way to give Hamburg a flying start.

They did not show much willingness to build on their lead, though, instead concentrating on defending it, even if there were still 89 minutes on the clock.

Paderborn showed with their attacking play that they were not going to concede defeat without a fight and the trend continued into the second half with Paderborn asking all the questions.

Elias Kachunga, restored to the squad after being left out for disciplinary reasons at the weekend, beat the onrushing Jaroslav Drobny but his shot hit the crossbar.

They continued to probe, with Hamburg starting to rock - until a corner led to some much-needed relief.

Nicolai Muller's corner was punched clear by Kruse, but only as far as Jansen, who turned and sent a low shot into the bottom right-hand corner.

Paderborn were understandably demoralised and unable to find any way at all of mounting a recovery.

Stieber powered in a third goal in stoppage time to earn Hamburg a bit of breathing space at the foot of the table.