Consistency continues to elude 1899

After their stunning victory over Borussia Dortmund, 1899 Hoffenheim manager Marco Pezzaiuoli decided against making any changes to his side in the hope of achieving a similar result. Meanwhile, following the devastating 4-0 defeat at the hands of 1. FC Köln, Mirko Slomka opted to make three changes to his side in an attempt to change the Reds fortunes. Florian Fromlowitz came in to replace the injured Ron-Robert Zieler, while Carlitos and Jan Schlaudraff made way for the returning Sergio Pinto and Didier Ya Konan.

Ya Konan makes his mark on comeback

After a minutes silence before the game in remembrance of the earthquake victims in Japan, referee Marc Seemann was ready to get the match underway. Hoffenheim started the game brightly and could have taken the lead within five minutes, but Ibisevic could only find the side netting with his effort. The Bosnian looked lively and two minutes later had a second chance to cause problems for Hannover, but was unfortunately a yard of the pace as he tried to get on the end of Vukcevic's through ball. The Reds, as expected, were looking dangerous on the counter attack, while the away side were left to control possession. 96's first chance fell to captain Steven Cherundolo when he smashed a long-range volley towards goal, but it failed to test Tom Starke. The home side were beginning to exert themselves into the match and had two good opportunities in the air only for both the sail over Starke's crossbar. It left Mirko Slomka's men with their hands on their heads - rightly so given the quality of both chances. After an intense opening, the game petered out somewhat with Hannover still looking to hit Hoffenheim on the break, while the Kraichgau outfit probed the home side's backline. Babel tried to inject some energy into the match just before the half hour mark, when he found himself in space and drilled a shot towards goal. It was not a bad effort from the Dutchman who is still searching for his first goal at Hoffenheim, but it sailed harmlessly wide in the end. The Sinsheim side were left to rue their missed chances, though, when Hannover got the breakthrough completely against the run of play with Manuel Schmiedebach playing Didier Ya Konan into the box down the left. The Ivorian showed great composure to finish from a tight angle, beating Starke at his front post for his twelfth goal of the season. They could have made it two shortly before half time when Starke misjudged a ball into the box, but Lars Stindl failed to take advantage of the chance sending the sides in at half time with the home side leading by single a goal.

Early goal lets 96 celebrate

The second half got underway and 1899 were immediately under pressure from the home side, when a 2-on-3 situation arose inside the Hoffenheim penalty area. On the slide Ya Konan managed to reach the ball across the box, but saw his effort bounce back of the bar and away from danger. 1899 didn't heed the warning and moments later found themselves two goals behind after a lovely, efficient move by the Reds. Breaking down the right hand flank all it took was a ball along the ground into the middle where Mohamed Abdellaoue had the simplest of tasks to prod the ball over the goal line for 2-0. The second goal truly took the wind out of 1899's sails as they lacked any impetus going forward, while Hannover remained the better team. Alaba had the away sides first real effort on goal just after the hour mark, but despite Fromlowitz fumbling the ball, there was no one on hand to act as the poacher. As the match progressed Hannover gradually took their foot off the pedal and allowed their guests to control the encounter even more in the final twenty minutes, which ultimately could have cost them. They were able to hold 1899 at bay, though, and limited them to shots from distance and just like Alaba before him, Sebastian Rudy couldn't find the back of the net either. The home fans were enjoying their sides free-flowing counter attacks and with quarter of an hour remaining it almost led to a third goal. Time after time the Reds were quick in transition, playing the long ball forward hopefully for Ya Konan to chase and with fifteen minutes remaining he found himself alone in front of goal. In this case, though, Tom Starke came out on top against the Ivorian centre forward. Then it was 1899's turn to get into their opponents penalty area, but when Mlapa found Ibisevic his effort hit the crossbar, while substitute Sigurdsson's shot was deflected behind by an opposing player's outstretched leg. Hoffenheim continued to try and put pressure on the home side, but just couldn't find a way through, meaning that Hannover held on to all three points as they cemented their third place position in the Bundesliga.

 

Match facts and statistics »