Hamburg missed the chance to stay on the heels of Bundesliga leaders Bayer Leverkusen after being held to a draw at Hannover.

Marcell Jansen put the visitors ahead after 15 minutes before Didier Ya Konan equalised in the 28th minute.

Eljero Elia restored Hamburg's advantage just before half-time only for Jiri Stajner to convert a late penalty for the second equaliser of the afternoon.

Bruno Labbadia's Hamburg remain second on 23 points - four points behind Leverkusen.

Hannover have collected three wins and a draw in their last five games to move up to ninth - five points from a Europa League spot.

The visitors pulled ahead after a quarter of an hour. Jansen stole the ball on the left and passed out to Elia and the young Dutch international crossed back to Jansen, who struck home with his left foot from nine yards.

Hannover did not create much going forward but did have a corner 13 minutes after the opening goal. And the hosts turned that into the equaliser with Ya Konan heading Constant Djakpa's corner kick home from nine yards.

Hamburg missed a golden opportunity to regain the lead after 33 minutes with Ze Roberto heading a pass into the area for Tunay Torun, who was quicker than Hannover defender Karim Haggui but shot just wide from 12 yards.

Hamburg regained the lead a minute before half-time on a dead ball situation as Piotr Trochowski sent a long free-kick into the box where Elia headed past Hannover keeper Robert Enke from four yards.

Eight minutes after the break Torun beat Enke with a shot to the far left post but it hit the woodwork.

Most of the second half saw Hamburg defending their lead instead of trying to increase it while Hannover lacked the firepower to equalise.

But Stajner was taken down by Tomas Rincon in the closing stages and the Czech veteran stepped up to clip the ball into the upper right corner two minutes from time.