Hamburger SV answered the "question of power" on the Elbe with their first derby win in almost three years.
The "Rothosen" defeated the "Boys in Brown" of FC St. Pauli after a deficit of 2:1 (0:1) and jumped to third place in the second division at least for one night.
Directly behind is 1. FC Nürnberg after a 1-0 (1-0) win at Fortuna Düsseldorf.
In the Volkspark, Sebastian Schonlau (58th minute) and Bakery Jatta (70th) scored for HSV, who had only picked up one point from the previous five derbies.
The gap to the neighbors and table leaders, who initially took the lead through Guido Burgstaller's 15th goal of the season (30th), is only three points.
In front of 2000 spectators in the Volkspark, including 200 guest fans, HSV started with a lot of momentum and great commitment in the northern German drizzle.
HSV coach Tim Walter had issued "full Lotte" on Sky for the duel of the cup quarter-finalists as a route, "we want to show that we are at home here".
But it was Burgstaller who scored the first goal on the other side.
Only in the second round did HSV reward themselves for their effort. After a cross from Sonny Kittel, Schonlau was initially allowed to head in unhindered from three meters to equalize. HSV now got the upper hand and pushed for the lead. Kittel finally shone again as a preparer, Jatta finally turned the game with a direct acceptance.
1. FC Nürnberg has at least temporarily conquered fourth place in the table and the crisis at Fortuna Düsseldorf has come to a head. In the duel of the former champions, the Franconians won 1-0 (1-0) on the Rhine and, after the third defeat in a row, increasingly brought the home side into relegation problems. Lino Tempelmann (2nd) scored the "Clubberer" with a long-range shot, which was deflected by teammate Nikola Dovedan, with the first dangerous action of the game to victory. Nürnberg increased his tally to 33 points and remains in the promotion race. Fortuna is stagnating at 20 points - and coach Christian Preusser, who came from Freiburg before the season, is likely to be thin after just one win in ten home games.
The Fortunes did not disappoint in front of 750 spectators against Nuremberg, but after the early shock they took control after just under fifteen minutes.
Khaled Narey (13th) against FCN keeper Christian Mathenia and Robert Bozenik (35th) missed great opportunities to equalize.
After the break, goalkeeper Florian Kastenmaier saved his team from going two goals down by deflecting a header from Christopher Schindler onto the crossbar (54').
Otherwise, almost only Düsseldorf played in the second round.