By Eike Zwicker
But the cruciate ligament rupture of Carlitos after 40 seconds dulls the joy
“96” Coach Mirko Slomka changed two positions in his line-up in connection with the cup loss against Elversberg (fourth division!). Konstantin Rausch replaced Jan Schlaudraff, who was cancelled out of the squad with the explanation of bad training performances during the week last-minute. The new “savior” Mohammed Abdellaoue (photo) ousted Mike Hanke in the spearhead. Frankfurt coach Michael Skibbe changed just one position, Gekas got the nod over Halil Altintop.
In the early minutes Hannover 96 had problems to control the game, especially after the bad occurrence of Carlitos, who twisted his knee after a few seconds of the game. The team doctor immediately made the sign for a substitution. Moritz Stoppelkamp filled the gap of the Portuguese. All in all the away team was more active and developed some chances over their wings Patrick Ochs and Benjamin Köhler. But neither Amanatidis with a header after a free-kick of Tzavellas (11th), nor Gekas used their chances (19th). Then, out of the blue Konstantin Rausch succeeded the lead for Hannover 96. New striker “Moa” Abdellaoue tackled the defensive line of Frankfurt with the outcome of a turnover, which Rausch transacted into a nice distance shot in the short corner of the goal (21th). Just minutes later Frankfurt tied the game, Patrick Ochs used a bad defense performance of Christian Schulz to cross the ball into the penalty area and Benjamin Köhler accomplished the move with a volley into the net (27th). Hereinafter the game calmed a bit, only when Schmiedebach passed the ball brilliantly to Schulz, who ran unmarked of the goal, but failed to score, came excitement into the game (37). This was the final act of a satisfying first half.
Both teams went out of the half time with the mission to score the lead and Hannover 96 was the team with the better realization, though without success. On the other side Eintracht Frankfurt found back into the game with a dangerous of Gekas, but Ya Konan blocked the ball with parts of his arm. However referee Aytekin did not whistle a penalty. Subsequently the team of Michael Skibbe increased their attacking efforts, nevertheless unsuccessfully. Then, Hannover 96 made a marvelous counter starting from Ya Konan, who outsmarted the defenders Franz and Russ and hammered the ball from 10 metres against the cross bar (68th). It appeared that this was the wakening call for “96”. It seemed to be that Frankfurt was a little bit confused, but first Abdellaoue (72th) and then Pogatetz (73th) failed to score from promising positions. Ultimately, Ya Konan was the player who cheated the goalkeeper of Frankfurt with a header from short distance (75th). In the period that followed Hannover had to score the preliminary decision, but Stoppelkamp and Abdellaoue were out of luck. In order that Frankfurt had the last chance to tie the game, however Marco Russ failed to score with a header against the post (89th).
Line-up:
Fromlowitz – Cherundolo – Haggui – Pogatetz – C. Schulz – Schmiedebach – Pinto – Carlitos – Rausch – Ya Konan – Abdellaoue
Substitutes:
Stoppelkamp for Carlitos (4th)
Djakpa for Rausch (74th)
Stindl for Schmiedebach (85th)
