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Fortuna Düsseldorf remains unbeaten in the 2nd Bundesliga under coach Daniel Thioune – but at Hannover 96 it should have been more than a draw. The guests played with one man more for 75 minutes.
The 0-0 on matchday 30 was fought hard by the home side, although the decision seemed to have been made after 15 minutes. With a high ball to the front, 96 defender Niklas Hult looked into the sun and lost his bearings. As the last man, he scrambled past the ball and instead into the legs of Rouwen Hennings – referee Tobias Stieler had no choice but to show red for the emergency brake.
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“The team invested a lot. We’re happy to take the point.”said Hanover coach Christoph Dabrowski: “I can only give the team a huge compliment for their efforts.”
More Rhein Fire than Fortuna
After being sent off, it quickly became clear that Düsseldorf had problems capitalizing on their superiority. At times it looked as if it was not Fortuna but the Rhein Fire football colleagues who were guests in Hanover: Khaled Narey made three attempts at field goal height, and his colleagues also repeatedly aimed over the hosts’ goal .
There was also a certain inertia. Thioune’s protégés also did far too little from 65 percent possession at the break because they moved too slowly, didn’t use the outside enough and made it pretty easy for the 96ers to defuse attack after attack.
Very tough second half
The second half didn’t get much more challenging either. Except for a free kick from Sebastian Kerk, which flew just over Florian Kastenmeier’s goal in the 69th minute, the 96ers hardly did anything offensively – which you couldn’t blame them with nine field players. The defensive, on the other hand, continued to be excellent and Fortuna simply couldn’t find any solutions to pull the action on their side.
Although Hennings tried to fall back into midfield to give a kind of playmaker. But that meant he was missing up front and there was next to nothing from his team-mates when it came to scoring. After all: Even in the eighth game under Thioune, Düsseldorf remain undefeated and should no longer have anything to do with relegation. Hannover should also continue second-rate in the coming season.
Hanover in Paderborn, Dusseldorf against Dresden
On the coming match day Hannover will play in Paderborn (Sunday, 1.30 p.m.), Düsseldorf against Dynamo Dresden (Friday, 6.30 p.m.).
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