When the ball wriggled in the Hannover 96 net for the second time this Sunday afternoon, there was no holding back on the bench: Robert Klauß, sporting director Olaf Rebbe and the coaching staff of 1. FC Nürnberg enthusiastically celebrated Tom Krauss’ decisive goal. There was a party atmosphere in Lower Saxony, at least among the guests from northern Bavaria. The mood had been pretty good in the run-up to the game in the Nuremberg camp, in the truest sense of the word: coach Klauss cited the recent 2-1 win against Hamburger SV as one reason for the high spirits, the other being the sunshine during the training week. “We had sunny weather for the first time,” said the club coach. The high should therefore also continue in Hanover.
The club won 3-0 (1-0), it was the fourth win in a row for the Franconians, who have now actually caught up with the promotion places and are only three points behind the top trio Darmstadt/St. Pauli/Bremen. “We’re happy with the result, but also with the game itself,” said Klauss in the press conference after the game and was happy about a “nice afternoon”. His team “offered a mature, mature performance, it was a matter of course. We often had to tremble until the end before we had won. This time it was relatively clear”.
The clubbers had to do without the suspended Lino Tempelmann, in his place Krauss was given preference over Johannes Geis. Enrico Valentini returned to the squad after surviving the corona infection, but remained on the bench due to a gastrointestinal infection. Klauß once again trusted his carefree offensive players Taylan Duman, Lukas Schleimer and Pascal Kopke and later brought on Erik Shuranov and Nikola Dovedan as jokers. All decisions should work out. By the way, the reunion with the former Nuremberg Sebastian Kerk had to be cancelled, the midfielder of the 96er had also caught a gastrointestinal disease.
Lukas Schleimer first thwarts a counterattack, shortly after that he scores to make it 0-1
The guests immediately took the initiative in front of 14,300 spectators (the stadium with its 49,000 seats should have been fully occupied), Fabian Nürnberger missed the first chance, who narrowly missed after a sprint through midfield (7th); In return, Lukas Hinterseer headed the ball back for Sebastian Stolze, whose attempt, however, went well over the box. Hannover was compact, refused any kind of pressing or high attack – and still caught the 0: 1 in the 26th minute after a switch situation in Nuremberg: Lower Saxony got stuck in front, on the countermove Lukas Schleimer separated from the ball too late, the situation seemed settled. But then Mark Diemers lost the ball outrageously, Nürnberger put it on perfectly for Schleimer, who scored his first second division goal.
“Before the game, some colleagues approached me and asked when it would finally work,” said the scorer after the game on Sky. And previously admitted his mistake on the counterattack: “I don’t play it well, but I wanted to keep at it, then Fabi sees me and I push him in.” There was also a compliment from coach Klauss: “Lukas was always involved in good actions, you can see the increased self-confidence in him.” And the 22-year-old almost scored his second goal before half-time, but his header hit the crossbar (41′). For the hosts, the former clubber Cedric Teuchert was dangerous with a few shots (27th, 36th).
Cold beer and a CD with Mallorca hits are available in the team bus
And Nürnberg also had everything under control after the break. Krauss, who was in the starting XI for the first time since February 12 and showed a strong performance, initially missed the 0:2 (73′), on the other hand goalkeeper Christian Mathenia made it the 96ers’ best chance of equalization was harmless, but Teuchert had pulled away again (81′). Two minutes later, Krauss called on the coaches outside to dance with a shot deflected by defender Julian Börner to make it 2-0 before Dovedan hung up for Shuranov and Shuranov made it 3-0 (87th). “The second goal came at the right time,” said Coach Klauss and praised his almost namesake Krauss: “He often didn’t play from the start, but today he introduced himself very well and won many important balls.”
For the trip home, Lukas Schleimer then revealed, there was chilled beer on the bus – and a CD by substitute goalkeeper Carl Klaus with Mallorca hits. And the afternoon sun was still shining from the sky.
