There was no disguising the joy most German football fans took from Bayern Munich's 2-0 defeat at SV Hamburg on Saturday and that was reflected in the media.
Hamburg ended Bayern's run of 15 consecutive league wins and they were the toast of the nation after goals from Rafael van der Vaart (10) and Piotr Trachowski (62) sunk the reigning champions.
"Sorry to Bayern and their fans but we have to say 'Thanks Hamburg. You have made (almost) the whole of Germany happy,'" headlined Bild daily.
Bayern had started the defence of their Bundesliga crown with six straight victories and football fans, apart from Bayern followers, feared the title race was going to be over before it began.
Words such as 'boring' and 'uncompetitive' had been dominating the headlines but Hamburg offered the league a ray of hope with their victory moving them just a single point behind table-toppers Bayern.
"Hamburg take Bayern off cloud nine," declared the Munchner Merkur while the Berliner Morgenpost exclaimed "They are beatable after all!"
With Werder Bremen also moving to within two points of Bayern, courtesy of a 2-1 win over Bayer Leverkusen, the league now looks competitive again.
"Hamburg put the brakes on Bayern," said the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper. "Finally we have some tension."
It was Bayern's first league loss since a 1-0 reverse to Schalke 04 in March and manager Felix Magath is aware that everyone was urging on Hamburg.
"Everyone wanted us to lose again and now that has been taken care of," explained Magath.
Germany's Bitburg Brewery agreed to offer 10,000 litres of free beer for the fans of the first team to beat Bayern this season - another example of how desperate the situation had become.
"We no longer need calls to decide what must be donated to beat Bayern again," added Magath somewhat tongue-in-cheek.
Record 19-time champions Bayern are used to being the most unpopular team in their league with neutrals frustrated by their continual domination.
A 2-0 loss at Hamburg is a minor setback but goalkeeper Oliver Kahn believes the end of 15 straight Bundesliga wins could be a blessing in disguise.
"In some ways we are glad that the run has come to an end," said Kahn. "It was getting on our nerves and had become extra pressure on our shoulders."
There is no doubt that the defeat has given the chasing pack hope but Hamburg's victorious coach Thomas Doll insisted Bayern were still a class apart. "Bayern are in a different league," said Doll.