Real Madrid defeat Hamburg
Van der Vaart was left out of the Hamburg line-up for the pre-season friendly at Arsenal's Emirates Stadium while negotiations continued over his proposed move to Real.
Hamburg are willing to sell the Holland midfielder if Real meet their 10 million euros valuation and, with the discussions close to a conclusion, there was never any chance van der Vaart would be on show in north London.
The 25-year-old could be confirmed as a Madrid player by early next week according to reports in Spain, but it was young midfielder Daniel Parejo who took centre-stage for Bernd Schuster's side here.
Ruud Van Nistelrooy, booed by Arsenal fans who still remember his time at Manchester United, broke the deadlock in the 25th minute with a simple tap-in from Michel Salgado's low cross.
Mohamed Zidan brought Hamburg level when he curled a superb strike into the far corner of Jerzey Dudek's goal from the edge of the area in the 53rd minute.
But Parejo, 19, won it with five minutes left when the Spaniard found space to head in Juan Miguel Callejon's cross from close range.