Hamburger SV held Bayern Munich to a 0-0 draw on Friday, a result which does little to improve Bayern's hopes of defending the Bundesliga title.
Bayern is now nine points behind leader Borussia Dortmund, which plays its game in hand on Sunday.
Hamburg created the better chances against Louis van Gaal's side, which has scored only eight goals in its opening nine matches in the league this season.
The draw was enough to move Hamburg up to fourth, six points off the top.
"We had the better chances but otherwise the game was more or less even," Hamburg defender Heiko Westermann said.
Thomas Mueller and Mario Gomez wasted early chances for Bayern before Hamburg threatened. Jonathan Pitroipa broke through and squared a useful ball into Bayern's area but Holger Badstuber cleared.
Hamit Altintop then shot high from a good position at the edge of Hamburg's penalty area.
Hamburg goalkeeper Frank Rost had to leave the game late in the first half because of a left-knee injury and was replaced by Jaroslav Drobny.
Marcell Jansen's deflected shot narrowly missed Bayern's goal in the 53rd and Anatoliy Tymoshchuk blocked Ruud van Nistelrooy's good attempt as Hamburg stepped up the pressure.
Bayern 'keeper Joerg Butt foiled Piotr Trochowski and Pitroipa then squandered the best chance of the match, hitting the post after a perfect through pass from Mladen Petric had left him one-on-one with Butt with 10 minutes remaining.
After that, it was Bayern putting on the pressure but it could not break down Hamburg's solid defense.
"We wanted to win three points but they had a big chance at the end so we have to be happy with the draw," Bayern defender Philipp Lahm said.
Both Hamburg and Bayern were coming off two straight wins.
"We should have won, we were the stronger team in the end," Bayern midfielder Toni Kroos said.
Drobny disagreed.
"They did not really have a chance in the second half," Drobny said.
