Hertha Berlin and Hannover suffer setbacks in Bundesliga

Disappointed Hertha Berlin players after their 2-0 loss to Freiburg

Berlin, Feb 16 (IANS) Relegation-threatened Freiburg earned a 2-0 victory over uninspired Berlin while newly promoted Paderborn came from behind to shock Hannover 2-1 at the close of the 21st round of the German Bundesliga.

Berlin lost the home debut of their new coach Pal Dardai as Freiburg scored two goals, courtesy Felix Klaus and Maximilian Philipp, to push Berlin onto the penultimate position of the table on Sunday, reports Xinhua.

The hosts staged a weak performance as they failed to work out goal scoring opportunities against deep defending Freiburg, who focused on fast breaks.

Freiburg's strategy turned out to be successful as they utilised their first chance to break the deadlock. Karim Guede passed into the goal area where Klaus tapped in at the near post with 14 minutes into the game.

Berlin failed to have clear cut goal scoring chance in the second half as well allowing clinical Freiburg to kill the game with the 2-0 lead when Philipp headed home a corner from six metres in the 52nd minute.

With the result, Berlin recorded their 12th loss of the season to slump to 17th place while Freiburg jump from 17th to 16th position.

Elsewhere, newly promoted Paderborn snatched a 2-1 comeback win against Hannover on the road. Both sides were unable to break the deadlock in the first half. Things changed after the restart as Hannover opened the scoring following a set-piece. Joselu flicked on Lars Stindl's free kick to Marcelo, who poked home from very close with all the time and space in the 66th minute.

Paderborn remained unimpressed and restored parity only six minutes later as substitute Srdjan Lakic headed home the equaliser. The visitors turned the tide and stunned Hannover when Alban Meha unleashed a free-kick from 25 metres to beat goalkeeper Ron-Robert Zieler in the 79th minute.

Hannover pressed frenetically to level the scores, but all their efforts remained fruitless. Paderborn climb from 15th to 12th position while Hannover stay at 10th place in the standings.