There are afternoons at Hamburger SV that test a supporter's patience as much as the team's, and for an hour this was one of them. The home side took a shape designed to frustrate — two banks of four, a lone forward, a referee content to let the afternoon spool out without meaningful interruption.

Werder Bremen, to their credit, did not panic. the captain sat deeper than usual to mop up the second balls, Rafferty rotated with Topp through the left channel, and Mockus — playing his 26th consecutive match — continued to be the least celebrated indispensable figure in the division.

The opener, when it came, was pure Okafor: a darting near-post run, a header across the keeper, the merciful collapse of a bolted door. Hamburger SV restored parity within six minutes against the run of play, and the match drifted toward the ugliness all present had expected from it.

Then, in the 67th minute, a ball into the box, a brush of the arm, referee Halliwell's whistle. Topp — always Topp — set the ball down, waited, and dispatched it low and hard to the goalkeeper's right. Two-one. Three points. And now to VfB Stuttgart.