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BERLIN, Dec. 15-- Raffael's second-half double strike helped Borussia Monchengladbach to overcome Hamburg 3-1 in the opener of the 17th round in Bundesliga on Friday. After three winless games in row, the "Foals" staged an offensively minded performance to overpower Hamburg, who restored parity after the restart before Raffael's late brace smoothed the way for the 3-1 victory. Dieter Hecking's men set the tone as youngster Reece Oxford rattled the crossbar with only six minutes into the game. It took the hosts another three minutes before Thorgan Hazard broke the deadlock after capitalizing on a through ball from Raffael. However, with the narrow lead Monchengladbach surprisingly ceased their offensive actions, allowing Hamburg to produce two promising chances through Mergim Mavraj and Andre Hahn. Monchengladbach remained dangerous though, as Michael Curisance hit Hamburg's woodwork from 20 meters. Hamburg's defender Kyriakos Papadopoulos defused another Monchengladbach opportunity with a fine tackle to Patrick Herrmann before the break. After the restart, Monchengladbach wasted another chance as Hamburg's goalkeeper Christian Mathenia denied Hazard his second on of the night following a one-on-one. Hamburg punished the host's wastefulness in the 53rd minute. The visitors forced a turnover in the midfield, allowing Aaron Hunt to set up for Andre Hahn, who made no mistake to restore parity against his former club. | 
