Return of the “Captain Fantastic”
A bit of delay of getting round to this post but I still have all my recorded notes taken during the match.
The winter chill is starting to come down in Hannover and warm jackets and scarves were the order of the day. It seemed to a bit quieter heading down to the stadium today, with not as much fans around the place, this could be due to the cold weather or that we were playing one the “big boys” of German football, Bayer Leverkusen. The so-called “big teams” have come here before and Hannover have prevailed, so with optimism, I was really looking forward to this game.
With Zieler coming off the back of an international clean sheet against Spain, making his 150th consecutive appearance for Hannover in all competitions and Hannover looking for a record 4th clean sheet in a row. The confidence was actually there that we could keep that record-breaking clean sheet today. Also making a return today was Edgar Prib and club captain Lars Stindl. The problems that we had in some previous games regarding our midfield could be solved. As “Alte Liebe” rings out throughout the stadium I notice that there are a lot of empty seats in the stadium (about 9000 of them). The only previous game this season that wasn’t a sell out was the midweek game against FC Köln for Game Day 5. I was surprised that a 15:30 game on the Saturday against Bayer Leverkusen was not sold out.
Anyway, kick off… and while there was some singing and chanting coming from the home fans, we knew that in order to win this game we needed to take this game to Leverkusen right from the beginning. 7 minutes in and the ball was in the back of the net, goal for Hannover….but disallowed for offside. The warning signs were there, Stindl was playing high in the midfield a distributing the ball well to the wings and Hannover were playing well. 15 mins in and a glorious chance for Stindl, he seemed to be expecting Kiyotake to finish it and when the ball rebounded off the goalkeeper it landed at the feet of Stindl and went agonisingly just wide of the post. With a few more games under his belt maybe he would have put that away.
With the great start made by Hannover, the fans responded and really upped the volume in the stadium. Chant of Hannover were emanating from the north stand and the west and south would respond in kind. The players from both sides, were sensing this game was there for the taking. Hannover were attacking and passing the ball well and Bayer Leverkusen were making good use of their possession through swift counter attacks and good fluid play. This created a bit of feisty atmosphere and for a small period of play tackles were flying in. Players being left on the ground and no whistle from the referee making the next tackle a little stronger. The players were seeing how far they could go without being penalised. The referee was starting to lose a bot of control, the fans, who were loving this aggressive style were booing every time a Hannover player was left on the floor, were cheering every time a hard tackle went in on the Leverkusen players. 2 quick yellow cards, one to each team, let the players know who was the boss…I amnot going to say this very often but… “Well done referee”, that could have turned ugly.
25 mins gone and a mistake from Sakai nearly gifted a goal to Leverkusen. The Hannover defense seems to be a bit shaky under the high balls and Leverkusen are putting good pressure on them. The clean sheet record is still intact…for now. Another bit of good play from Hannover and especially Stindl, with another great chance for our captain to mark his return to the side with a goal, but again just inches wide. I am so glad Lars Stindl in back, he was what we were missing, that creative spark and leadership. Hopefully he can stay fit, get that match sharpness back and address the current awful goal return Hannover currently has.
Half time and the fans were singing, Hannover were playing well and full of confidence, Jimmy Briand even attempting another bicycle kick shortly before half time. 0-0 and on reflection Hannover can be a bit unlucky that there were not ahead. 2 great chances for Stindl and a disallowed goal. The most important thing was, so far another clean sheet, 45 mins to go to create a Hannover club record!! Come on boys, you can do it….concentrate.
Second Half and seconds in and disaster! Goal for Bayer Leverkusen from Stefan Kießling. Gone..clean sheet record, concentration and a little bit of hope. To play that well in the first half and have nothing to show, then 60 seconds into the second to be 1 down was a demoralising blow. The shock of the early goal took a few minutes to sink in, and then…double disaster…2 nil Leverkusen. Once again coming from an attack down the left, Sakai stands off his man giving a chance to Heung-Min Son to turn the ball to his right foot and curl a lovely shot past Zieler. The Hannover fans were stunned, yes while some people would expect Leverkusen to beat Hannover, it just didn’t seem fair that they played so well in the first half and all of a sudden were 2 nil down and seemingly no way back.
Football in a funny old game and next attack 2 mins later from Hannover led to a free kick out on the right, it was swung in from Kiyotake and leaping the highest was Ceyhun Gulselam to score his first goal for Hannover, a well executed header in off the post just out of the reach of the stretched arm of Bernd Leno. Unbelievable, Hannover are back in it and the fans now raise the volume once again, and the belief is back in the stadium.
At 1-2, the players start to push for that equalising goal and start to get higher and higher up the pitch. This was either going to result in 2-2 or 1-3 and, disappointingly it was the latter. A nice through ball from Roberto Hilbert to Karim Bellarabi who timed his run to perfection and calmly slotted home his one-on-one against Zieler.
This was the final nail in the coffin, there would be no coming back from this. Double substitution where the two returning players are given a break and Stindl and Prib are replaced by Sobiech and Albornoz. Lars Stindl, playing his first Bundesliga match this season was great in the first half but just seemed to run out of steam in the second half.
The rest of the game was played in a low-key fashion, with Bayer Leverkusen comfortable at 1-3 and Hannover just seemed to not believe that after the first half performance are staring down the wrong side of a 1-3 scoreline.
To be honest, I was a little disappointed in the game, not for the way they played but how that scoreline doesn’t reflect the balance of play and that while it was great Gulselam got himself on the score sheet, we are badly missing a striker. Strikers are judged on the goals they score and so far Jimmy Briand with 1 goal and Joselu with 2 goals but none since game day 5 against Köln. We need something different, maybe this could be Stindl, better delivery into the box?? more freedom to the strikers?? Anyway, looking at the positives, first half – great and Stindl and Prib are back. The next game is an away game against Hoffenheim and the next visitors to HDI arena are Wolfsberg on the 6th December at 15:30. Lets show Team VW who is the number 1 team in Niedersachsen!
Auf gehts Hannover!
Hannover 96 1 – 3 Bayer Leverkusen
0-1 Stefan Kießling 46 mins, 0-2 Heung-Min Son 58 mins, 1-2 Ceyhun Gulselam 60 mins, 1-3 Karim Bellarabi 71 mins
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