Wednesday evening and yet another sold-out north derby for the Green-Whites. This time it was Hanover 96 playing host to Werder Bremen, who will spend winter in third place in the Bundesliga.
Wednesday evening and yet another sold-out north derby for the Green-Whites. This time it was Hanover 96 playing host to Werder Bremen, who will spend winter in third place in the Bundesliga.
Wednesday evening and yet another sold-out north derby for the Green-Whites. This time it was Hanover 96 playing host to Werder Bremen, who will spend winter in third place in the Bundesliga. Thomas Schaaf made only one change to the tem from Sunday's 0:0 draw with HSV, Ivan Klasnic returning to the starting eleven for the first time since his appendix operation. The K&K strike force were reunited and with every intention of allowing the year to ring out in typical K&K style.
The hosts put on the pressure early on but the Werder front men knew how to handle the situation and almost profitted in the fourth minute but Klasnic couldn't get the ball under control. Leon Andreasen, again playing wide on the left, was on top form, offensively minded and keeping his opponents extremely busy which caused Hanno Balitsch a yellow card when he forceably stopped Andreasen in the 13th minute. Werders best chance in the first half came as Patrick Owomoyela picked out Johan Micoud but the Frenchman could only drive his shot over Robert Enke's crossbar.
End to end action at both ends
The match itself was not yet living up to north derby expectations but typical niggly fouls were the order of the day. Almost every action from Hanover occured on the left through Michael Delura. A shimmer of hope arose for the visitors in the 33rd minute. Frank Baumanns header only found the post but then Altin Lala and Torsten Frings got their legs tied up and the Werder man came off worse, subsequently being treated for several minutes but was able to continue. The tie was to develop into a real end to end thriller before the break.
It was the home side who put the pressure on first and came close in the 43rd minute. Michael Tarnat fed Jiri Stajner who let fly from the edge of the box but Andreas Reinke was equal to it. Reinke, who has often been critisised of late, was on hand again soon after denying Brdaric the opener and Vahid Hashemian drove the parried shot against the crossbar. Then came the relieving sound of referee Dr. Markus Merk's whistle, half time.
Werder felt the pressure again after the break and were forced back all too often. 96's next chance fell as Reinke punched clear but the ball landed perfectly for Hashemian who drove his shot back at the keeper who again was able to clear the danger. It took Werder ten second half minutes to create their first chance. Naldo rising to meet a Frings corner. Enke, in the 96 goal, could only turn the ball against the crossbar and Naldo was free to give Werder the lead from the rebound. Right from the re-start Hanover equalised but the goal was disallowed for offside.
Werders pressure phase begins
The following phase was one of Werder pressure with chances coming with distinct regularity. Aaron Hunt crossed to Daniel Jensen, who came on to replace Jurica Vranjes. The dane headed down to Micoud but the Frenchman couldn't beat Enke. Next scene, Miro Klose clashed with Enke in the box and was then hindered by the keeper as attempted to find his feet, the referee had a good view of the incident - penalty, whic Torsten Frings put away cleanly. From the restart, Petri Pasanen shoulered Brdaric aside in the Werder area - penalty, which Sousa put away to reduce the defeceit. 1:2.
With only minutes to go Patrick Owomoyela marched towards the 96 goal and passed to Klose whose shot took a wicked deflection of Balitsch and looped over the keeper into the net - 1:3. Hanover had little more to give and Aaron Hunt fininsed them off, netting a pass from Johan Micoud to make the final score 1:4 and put the Green-Whites into the DFB-Cup quarter final.
